His love affair with flags - and patriotism - began many years ago. Eighty-year-old Simons, now of West Valley City, was born and raised in Salt Lake City. His father set an example for military service by enlisting in the Army during World War I. When Simons came of age, the country was in the throes of war and he felt a responsibility to answer the call of duty. He served as a storekeeper in the Navy during World War II and the Korean conflict from 1944-1953.
The family tradition continued when his three sons served in the Army during the Vietnam era. A great-grandson recently joined the Army to add yet another generation of Simonses to serve their country.
"Starting with my father, we all volunteered. Not one of us was drafted," Simons says with pride.
Simons went on to raise a family and complete a 35-year career with Eimco Mining Machinery. After his retirement and the death of his wife, he became active in the Veterans of Foreign Wars and started his flag-history hobby.
On a recent trip to the Draper Senior Center, Simons - along with fellow VFW members Roy Kunzi, Vaughn Long, Bob Steele and Vern Wade - unfurled 21 official, regional-interest and commemorative flags and provided a brief history of each.
The presentation also touched on little-known facts about the flags: The Gadsen flag, with its famous inscription, "Don't Tread on Me," was first flown in 1776 and represented a warning by the colonists to the British; the flag in Taos, N.M., is customarily flown 24 hours a day because the flag was nailed to the flagpole during the Civil War to prevent Southern sympathizers from tearing it down; and the largest U.S. flag in existence measures 505 feet in length and 255 feet in width and weighs 1 1/2 tons - the fabric alone cost $30,000 and it took several thousand hours to sew together.
Kaye Ipsen, a World War II Navy veteran, attended the presentation and was surprised to learn so much about the flags. "It was a great activity," Ipsen said. "I didn't realize how many flags there have been throughout the history of our country."
"That's why we enjoy doing these presentations," Simons said. "The response from people is very gratifying."
Wade adds: "The VFW motto is 'Honor the dead by helping the living' and this is one way we can do that." And of the flag, Wade says simply: "I love it."
His fellow veterans nod their heads in agreement. "That says it all," they conclude.
Information on the flag presentation may be obtained by contacting any VFW post.
Birth of an anthem
During the night of September 13, 1814, the British fleet bombarded Fort McHenry in the harbor at Baltimore, Maryland. Francis Scott Key, a 34-year-old lawyer-poet, watched the attack from the deck of a British prisoner-exchange ship. He had gone to seek the release of a friend but they were refused permission to go ashore until after the attack had been made.
As the battle ceased on the following morning, Key turned his telescope to the fort and saw that the American flag was still waving. The sight so inspired him that he pulled a letter from his pocket and began to write the poem that eventually was adopted as the national anthem of the United States - "The Star-Spangled Banner." Key was returned to Baltimore and later that day took a room at a Baltimore tavern where he completed the poem.
- "Our Flag," U.S. Government Printing Office, 1998
"The Star-Spangled Banner" by Francis Scott Key, 1814
Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
