THE FLAG OF THE oon after General Omar N. Bradley took office as the first Chairman So of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in August 1949, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson asked the Secretary of the Army to prepare designs for a distinguishing flag for the Chairman. The Heraldic Branch of the Army Quartermaster General's Office (later the US Army Institute of Heraldry) drew up two designs, which the Secretary of the Army submitted to Secretary Johnson on 17 November. On 6 December Johnson approved the design preferred by General Bradley and requested that the Secretary of the Army provide the Chairman with such a flag. The Manufacturing Division of the Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot made the flag, and it was delivered to General Bradley on 19 January 1950 and displayed in his office for the first time on 26 January. He also received a flag made of bunting for field use, small boat and automobile flags, and the flag reproduced on aluminum plates for use on aircraft. The flag of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is of medium blue and white silk (the colors of the flags of the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, respectively) divided diagonally from upper hoist to lower fly, blue above and white below. The central design consists of an American eagle with wings spread horizontally. On the eagle's chest is a shield consisting of thirteen stripes, seven white and six red, representing the thirteen original colonies, with blue in chief (the upper part of the field), representing Congress joining the colonies into unity. The eagle, facing the pike, the point of honor in heraldry, holds three crossed gold arrows in its talons, representing the yellow silk. In addition, the flag has a cord Army, Navy, and Air Force. The position of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is indicated by four stars, each with one point upward, placed on a diagonal line from upper fly to lower hoist, two to each side of the eagle. The stars on the blue field are white; those on the white field are blue. The placement of the stars on a diagonal line is intended to be representative of all three services. In Army and Air Force flags, stars are placed in a horizontal center line, while in the Navy a vertical center line is used for two stars, an imaginary triangle for three stars, and an imaginary lozenge for four stars. The eagle and stars of the Chairman's flag are hand-embroidered, and three edges of the flag are trimmed with knotted fringe of and tassels of medium blue and white silk strands attached below the spearhead of the pike. The Chairman's flag is displayed in his office and carried in honors ceremonies when he is present. In September 1950, when General Bradley was promoted to five-star rank, the Secretary of the Army asked whether an additional flag should be designed for use when the Chairman was a five-star officer. General Bradley did not think an additional flag was needed. He believed that the flag represented the position, not the rank of the individual occupant, and should not be changed to show the rank of the incumbent. The Secretary of Defense acceded to General Bradley's wishes and a five-star Chairman's flag was not designed. |