Gateway Elks Lodge #2411 held its annual, open service to commemorate Flag Day on Thursday, June 14th.  The purpose of this service is to honor our country’s flag, to celebrate the anniversary of its birth and to recall the achievements attained beneath its folds.  The Lodge Chair Officers gave testimony as to the significance of our flag, PER Don Cohee spoke on its history and tradition and Lyle Wescott, a member of the Lodge Americanism Committee, gave a stirring rendition of the poem “This Ragged Old Flag”.

Assisting in the service were Boy Scouts of local Troop 606 who paraded eight examples of the evolution of the American Flag.   First exhibited was the “Pine Tree Flag” dating from 1775 which was carried by the Continental Forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill.  Next presented was the “Snake Flag” which was used by the Southern Colonies from 1776 to 1777.  The third flag was known as “The Continental Colors” or “The Grand Union”.  This banner was never carried in the field but was used by the Navy as its exclusive ensign and was the first American Flag to receive a salute of honor (a salute of eleven guns) at the Fort of Orange in the Dutch West Indies.  The fourth flag is the familiar Colonial thirteen stripes alternating red and white with a union of thirteen stars circled in a blue field representing a new constellation.
In 1795, two additional Stars and Stripes were added to represent the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to the Union.  Under this flag (the fifth flag presented) was fought the War of 1812 and it is this banner that inspired Francis Scott Key to write our National Anthem.
The sixth flag was adopted by Congress on April 14th, 1818 when it was resolved that on and after July 4th, 1818, the number of stripes should be thirteen and that the field of blue should carry one star for each of the twenty states in the Union and that a new star should be added for each state thereafter admitted.
The seventh banner presented was the 48 Star Flag which flew over our nation for forty-seven years, from July 1912 to just before the Vietnam War.
The last American Flag to enter was our current 50-star flag.  The last 2 stars were added in 1959 and 1960 with the admission into the Union of Alaska and Hawaii.

Our flag is at once a history, a declaration and a prophecy.  It represents the American nation as it was at its birth; it speaks for what it is today and it holds the opportunity for the future to add other stars to the glorious constellation.   Woodrow Wilson said of our flag, “This Flag, which we honor and under which we serve, is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought and shape of this nation.  It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation.  The choices are ours.”

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is the first and only fraternal body to require formal observance of “Flag Day”.  In July of 1908, the Grand Lodge of this Order at Dallas, Texas, then assembled, provided for the annual nationwide observance of “Flag Day” on the 14th of June in each year, by making it mandatory upon each Subordinate Lodge of the Order.
This unique distinction as the originator of “Flag Day” is most becoming to the Order of Elks.  This Order is distinctively American.  Only American citizens are eligible to join it and it has no foreign affiliations.  It has linked its destiny to our country and made this flag its symbol of self-dedication to God, to country and to fellow men.