JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. –
The symbol of hope for all Americans after the attacks of 9/11 was the American Flag. One flag in particular was flown amongst the rubble between both towers to honor a first responder who lost his brother. For 19 years, this same flag has traveled the country and seen three tours in Iraq.
“Shortly after 9/11, we had an officer from the Port Authority Police Department come into our store in New Jersey about 80 miles away from Ground Zero,” said John Sullivan, owner of the American Eagle Flag and Flagpole Company. “When the officer came into our store, he had just lost his partner. He was supposed to be on duty that day but he had switched shifts with someone else. Unfortunately, the guy he switched with and his partner both perished at Ground Zero. When he came in, he was extremely distraught and we gave him a flag to take back to Ground Zero to honor his partner, Joseph Navas. I never expected to see that flag again.”
Later, Sullivan was invited to Ground Zero by the PAPD and was shown the destruction. During this time, Sullivan saw the American Flag he loaned the officer flying atop the rubble.
“The flag you see here flew above the rubble between the North and South Towers,” Sullivan said. “After touring the destruction for three hours, we were about to leave when PAPD took the flag out of the rubble and presented it back to us.”
After getting the flag back, Sullivan knew he wanted to honor the victims and family members because many came into his store in the following days.
“We had survivors in the store the very next morning telling us what it was like up there at the towers,” Sullivan said. “It was totally heart-wrenching. We had families and victims in our store crying their eyes out and all we had was an American Flag to show them some hope.”
Over the next two years, Sullivan loaned out the flag for various ceremonies around New York and New Jersey to be presented during 9/11 remembrances. It wasn’t until he received a phone call in 2003 that would alter the mission and meaning of the flag.
“In 2003, we got a call from a customer,” Sullivan said. “He was a Major with the 404th Civil Affairs from Fort Dix, New Jersey. It turned out that he was standing on top of one of Saddam’s palaces in Baghdad on a [satellite] phone. He asked us to send him some four-inch by six-inch flags on sticks so they could be given to the children. He knew they needed to win the hearts and minds of the people in Iraq. During the conversation, I gathered from the Major that there was another concern. The troops over there were questioning why they were there, or at least those in his group were. So, my wife and I decided, to take this flag with the cross and send it over to them to remind them why they’re fighting.”
On September 11, 2003, the flag was flown at the Samarra East Airfield in Iraq. The flag was a part of Operation Red Dawn. It has since been flown in an A-10 Warthog during combat missions over Baghdad, used in religious ceremonies at Fort Bragg and countless other ceremonies around the nation.
After 19 years, the flag made its first appearance at Fort Eustis.
“Today, we are honored to have the Ground Zero Flag team on Fort Eustis for the first time,” said U.S. Army Col. Chesley Thigpen, commander of the 733d Mission Support Group. “For the past 19 years, the two items have been traveling to cities across the U.S. to honor the thousands of lives that were lost on 9/11.”
For the week of September 11-18, 2020, the flag traveled around Eustis and was flown on the LSV-2 CW3 Harold C. Clinger, at the Transportation Museum, on the railroad engine car and over the installation in a helicopter from Felker Airfield.
Anytime the flag is presented during a 9/11 remembrance ceremony, Sullivan’s only requirement is that the flag be displayed for nine minutes and 11 seconds with the cross at the base of the flag.
“As the years went on, we loaned it out to people who wanted to fly it at their personal residences in honor of certain people,” Sullivan said. “My wife and I feel unworthy to have these artifacts. We are just the caretakers. They belong to the American people; they belong to everyone as a symbol of what happened 19 years ago, what we never want to happen again and for the people who fought and are still fighting today.”