The U.S. Flag at the Mt. Lebanon Veterans Memorial

The following letter has been submitted by frequent Lebo Citizens commenter and Mt. Lebanon resident, Richard Gideon. Mr. Gideon is nationally recognized as the nation's leading Vexillologist. Thank you for submitting this informative letter.

To the Editor:

This month we celebrate two important dates dealing with the Flag of the United States. The first one is 14 June, which is our traditional "Flag Day." The second is the anniversary of an act that established what form the flag should take. On 24 June 1912, President William Howard Taft signed Executive Order 1556, which for the first time in our nation's history established uniform specifications and a "pattern" for the U.S. Flag. To commemorate that event Old St. Lukes in Scott Township (330 Old Washington Pike) has graciously offered me space and time to present a Centennial Lecture on the subject, which will occur on the 24th of June, 2012, at 2:00pm - one hundred years to the date of the signing.  All Blog readers are cordially invited to attend. The lecture will be short, but I trust you will find it informative and the "visual aids" interesting. Admission is free.

The necessary research into this subject got me to thinking about the Mt. Lebanon Veterans' Memorial. I was curious about the height of the flag pole and the size of the flag to be flown from it. As this is a memorial to our military veterans and those killed in our nation's wars, I was reasonably sure the flag would be "G-spec" - meaning it would meet the current requirements that the U.S. Flag have an aspect ratio of 1.9:1; but I was curious about what size the architect had chosen. As it turns out, I was wrong to make that assumption.

About two weeks prior to the dedication ceremony, I made preliminary efforts to contact some of the people who were on the memorial committee, asking them about the height of the pole and the size of the flag to be flown. I heard back from two members, but neither one had the answers. One recommended that I contact the Mt. Lebanon PIO person, Ms. Susan Morgans. I anon wrote to Ms. Morgans, explaining to her that I was a professional Vexillologist and a registered Government Contractor, and my primary business was supplying military streamers and flags to military departments and organizations. I asked her for the height of the pole and the size of the flag. Her response was as follows:

"The architects are well aware of the specs and the flag and pole conform. Thanks."

Earlier I had been informed that the Marine Corps League had donated a flag for the Memorial, so I tried contacting that organization. Unfortunately, no one returned my phone call. I then turned to the Internet (which I probably should have done in the beginning), and after some searching found what I was looking for in the Planning Board Minutes of Tuesday, April 26, 2011. On page four is the following entry:

"Mr. Kreuthmeier said they reviewed a proposal with the Veterans memorial committee. The idea was to visually anchor the 45-foot tall flagpole with an 8-foot-by-12-foot flag. The obelisk will list the wars starting with the Revolutionary War at the bottom and working up. They were asked to provide a quote for the back wall of the memorial. They will also have a quote from Plato that will go around the obelisk."

A U.S. Flag of 8 feet by 12 feet (aspect ratio 1.5:1) is not a code flag. It is a popular commercial size, but for reasons which are better left to my lecture on the 24th, it is not an appropriate military ensign. I so informed Ms. Morgans, along with all of the correspondents to whom I had written earlier; including the Mt. Lebanon Commissioners, some members of the former Mt. Lebanon Veterans' Memorial Committee, and various other interested parties. Ms. Morgans replied, understandably, that she was only repeating what she had been told by the architect, and in replying to me CC'd all in my original message, adding the architect, Mr. Peter Kreuthmeier, to the list. Not long afterward, I received an E-mail from Mr. Kreuthmeier, who opened his message as follows:

"Mr. Gideon is absolutely correct.  We have been aware of these concerns since the inception, and indeed had every intention and made every effort to incorporate a G-spec flag on this project.  We did not do so for several reasons, some practical, some proportional, some manufacturing-related."

Mr. Kreuthmeier went on to say, in essence, that the biggest limiting factor was his desire to use a flag with a fly length of 12 feet, for reasons having to do with the layout of the memorial (including possibly interfering near-by trees), and ready-made flags meeting the U.S. Flag Code were not available in that length (to meet the code a flag with a length of 12 feet would have to be 6 feet, 3 3/4 inches wide). In my earlier message I had suggested that a proper flag for the pole would be a "G-spec" size 6 flag, measuring 8' 11 3/8" (or 8.94 feet) by 17 feet, but that size would have been too long by five feet. I then suggested that a smaller, size 8 flag of 5 feet by 9 1/2 feet would meet the Flag Code and be short of the desired length by only two and a half feet. Mr. Kreuthmeier said he had considered a smaller size in combination with the POW/MIA flag, and although he felt the combination didn't have the "vaboom" he was trying to achieve, he did say,

"In the interest of satisfying the question at hand, I'd presume you can bring some of these flags to the site and we can literally run them up the flagpole. I'd be happy to oblige if there is any interest."

Blog readers may wonder why any of this "flag business" matters, and that's a fair question to ask. Although the U.S. Flag Code "requires" that our national emblem be made in an aspect ratio of 1.9:1 (except for a few specialty flags), there are no penalties for not doing so, and even President Eisenhower felt that meeting the "spirit" of the law was more important than meeting its letter. But a properly made U.S. Flag gives a totally different "feel" to the viewer, as any member of the military can attest - and this is a memorial for Mt. Lebanon's military veterans and those killed in action.

Since the Mt. Lebanon Veterans' Memorial is not on military property the current 8' x 12' flag will likely stay, to vex, if you'll pardon the pun, Vexillologists (and veterans) such as myself. I did feel that a proper code flag would have been more fitting (and apparently, to his credit, so does the architect), but I do understand the problems involved with using one at the Mt. Lebanon Veterans' Memorial site.

I would like to publicly thank all of those to whom I wrote for taking their valuable time to respond to my concerns, even if we did not see eye to eye on the subject.  

Richard Gideon
USAF 1966 - 1970