Something for the weekend: Dog Face Soldier (1942)
On June 14, 1777 the Second Continental Congress passed this resolution:
“Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
The Flag was designed by member of Congress Francis Hopkinson who requested a quarter cask of wine for his services. Payment was denied him on the sound ground that he was already being paid as a member of Congress. Two years previously on June 14, 1775, Congress voted to adopt the New England militia army besieging Boston and so the Continental Army was formed.
I have always thought it appropriate that the Flag and the Army share the same birthday. The Flag is the proud symbol of the nation but without military strength to back it up, it would quickly become a mere colorful piece of fabric. John Wayne in a brief speech at the end of the movie Fort Apache (1948), part of John Ford’s cavalry trilogy, captured the spirit of the Army:
As did this passage the following year in the second of the cavalry trilogy, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon:
So here they are: the dog-faced soldiers, the regulars, the fifty-cents-a-day professionals… riding the outposts of a nation. From Fort Reno to Fort Apache – from Sheridan to Startle – they were all the same: men in dirty-shirt blue and only a cold page in the history books to mark their passing. But wherever they rode – and whatever they fought for – that place became the United States.
Yesterday, was a beautiful day at West Point.
From the movie, “The Sand Pebbles” Lt. Collins’ Flag Day Speech…
“Today we begin cruising to show the flag on Tungting Lake and the Hunan Rivers. I want all honors rendered smartly.
“At home in America, when today reaches them it will be Flag Day. For us who wear the uniform every day is Flag Day.
“It is said that there will be no more wars. We must pretend to believe that. But when war comes, it is we who will take the first shock, and buy time with our lives. It is we who keep the Faith…
“We serve the Flag. The trade we all follow is the give and take of death. It is for that purpose that the people of America maintain us. And anyone of us who believes he has a job like any other, for which he draws a money wage, is a thief of the food he eats, and a trespasser in the bunk in which he lies down to sleep.”
Outrageous! Today, Flag Day, our central HS district is putting on an ‘event,’ billed as “Fist Up For Black Lives Matter – Sewanhaka High School District March.” I can’t do anything about it – wish I could – too many witnesses. .
Never Mind the Navy speech. See below post.
The birth of the Nuclear Navy saw its beginning on Flag Day, June 14, 1952 in Groton, Connecticut with the keel of SSN 571- USS Nautilus, being laid by Harry S. Truman.
https://www.ussnautilus.org/flag-day-and-the-beginning-of-the-nuclear-navy/
We always hear about the Army & Marine Corps, and rightly so. But how about the Silent Service that helped us win the Cold War?
And perhaps it’s equally fitting that the Flag, the Army and President Trump share the same birthday?