Most people recite the story of Betsy Ross when they talk about the American flag. Edmund F. Tokarz of West Point tells more.
"People think Betsy Ross and that's all," he says. "There's much more to it than that. Each flag has its own history. Each flag is a record of a time period."
Tokarz, a World War II veteran, has a collection of 13 state flags, eight versions of the American flag and a Nazi flag so big it would cover his living room floor if unfolded.
His first memories of flags date to his childhood, when his father flew them outside the J.T. Tokarz General Store in West Point. The next important flag in his life - one with 48 stars - soared over American military headquarters in Landshut, near Munich, West Germany, at the end of the war.
Tokarz, who later was promoted to major but was then a captain attached to the 14th armored division with Gen. George S. Patton's forces, felt the lack of an American flag in Landshut, where he was the military commander. He sent his soldiers to ask Germans for materials, and a seamstress sewed a flag. A mail clerk painted on the stars in white enamel.
Staff Sgt. Stanford Luce Jr. wrote about the flag in an overseas chronicle about their division that was published in Bavaria in 1945:
"The first day the flag flew from the pole it caused quite a thrill to see it floating over the land that had taken us so much hardhip and danger and time to conquer.
There was pride in our bearing as we stood at attention during retreat in the evening. Everyone stiffened as the bugle sounded and the flag slowly descended the pole. Everyone felt glad in their hearts that the war had been won and freedom would reign again."
Tokarz says he learned to appreciate the flag and its symbolism that day.
He left the American flag behind at headquarters but brought home a huge Nazi flag in black, red and white cotton as a souvenir. Other war memorabilia include two picture books on Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers' Party, and German soldiers' compasses and swords.
While he values the historical items, Tokarz' main interest is in American flags.
His next flag encounter came when he worked as the chairman of the Earl of Granville Festival in North Carolina in 1980. To honor Thad Eure, then North Carolina's secretary of state, Tokarz asked each of the 13 original states to send a letter of congratulations and a flag. After the celebration, Eure gave Tokarz the flags.
So a collection began. Tokarz started buying historical American flags, one each year. "That gives me a year to learn all about it," he says.
Tokarz owns the following replicas of historical flags, except for the Continental and the Gadsden, which he plans to buy in the next two years:
* St. George Cross: the first English flag used in North America, flown by John Cabot in 1497 under the reign of King Henry VII.
* Kings Colors: created when King James I superimposed the Scottish flag of St. Andrew on the St. George Cross when the Mayflower landed in 1620.
* British Red Ensign: The Kings Colors were placed in a field of red for this flag, which Queen Anne adopted in 1707 for England and her colonies. Cornwallis surrended at Yorktown under this flag.
* Continental: unfurled during the Revolutionary War, a pine tree, symbolic of the New England way of life, replaced the Kings Colors.
* Gadsden: devised by Col. Gadsden of South Carolina, the rattlesnake motif was to warn the British it could be as dangerous to tread on the colonies as it would be to step on a rattlesnake.
* Grand Union: adopted in 1776 with the thirteen stripes representing the colonies and the Kings Colors in the Canton, illustrating their allegiance to England.
* Betsy Ross: officially adopted by Congress in 1777.
* Bennington: stars form a horseshoe around 76, inspired by Gen. John Stark's militia in a defense of Bennington, Vt., in 1777.
* Star Spangled Banner: adopted in 1794 with 15 stripes and stars, after Vermont and Kentucky were added to the Union.
* Old Glory: adopted by Congress in 1818, establishing the number of stripes at seven red and six white, with an additional star for every new state joining the Union.
Tokarz keeps his flags in a box and unfolds them for visitors and school demonstrations. Since he moved back to West Point to retire in 1983, he and one or two fellow members of the VFW Post 8356 have given presentations on the history of the flag to school children across the Middle Peninsula. They teach the students basic rules such as to never let a flag touch the ground and to never put a torn or dirty flag in the garbage, rather burn it.
Most importantly, Tokarz says, he stresses the significance of the flag. "It's more than a piece of cloth. It represents our country. I want them to appreciate our country, the freedom and the good life they have and not take things for granted."