She’s a ‘Grand Old Flag’

HOLT, Fla., June 14, 2026—Today is celebrated as Flag Day in the United States, a day when all citizens are encouraged to fly the flag.

And by presidential proclamation, it also kicks off National Flag Week that runs through June 20.

President Woodrow Wilson made a proclamation to designate June 14, 1916, as Flag Day. President Harry S. Truman made it an official annual recognition day when he signed Congress’s joint resolution in to law in 1949, 172 years after the Second Continental Congress passed a resolution stating that “the flag of the United States be 13 stripes, alternate red and white,” and the “union be 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

And for the 249 years since then, the United States has been flying the red, white and blue.

The 50-star flag flown today was designed in the 1950s by 17-year-old Ohio student Bob Heft as a class project. At the time, Alaska and Hawaii had not yet been admitted to the Union.

After both states joined the union, Heft sent his flag to his congressman who presented it to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The president selected the teen’s design in 1960.

Heft wound up with an A in history.

Flag Code

Rules for handling and displaying the U.S. flag are defined by Title 4, Chapters 1-10 of the U.S. Code, also known as the Flag Code. It’s considered an advisory code because it does not state penalties for violation.

When a new state is admitted into the Union, a star is added to the field of blue and takes effect the next July Fourth.

The Flag Code stipulates proper display and handling of the American flag. For instance, Section 8 states that the flag is not to be worn or used as a bedspread or drapes.

Design, marks, pictures, drawings or advertisements are not supposed to be attached to the flag, either printed, painted or otherwise affixed to it.

By code, the flag is only supposed to be displayed from sunrise to sunset unless properly illuminated at night, and it should be displayed on or near all public buildings, at polling places on election day and at schools.

To retire the colors

Section 8 of the U.S. Code also specifies that a flag no longer fit for display “should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.”

Once a flag becomes too torn, tattered and too dirty to be flown, it should be retired with dignity, not thrown away.

People in this area have a number of options to properly retire a flag.

The Boy Scouts of America recommends retiring the flag when it is worn beyond repair. Flags are ceremoniously burned on a “modest, but blazing fire …in a simple manner with dignity and respect.” The flag is reduced to ashes so it’s unrecognizable as a former flag. During a ceremony, multiple flags may be retired.

Worn-out U.S. flags can be turned over to the American Legion, Veteran of Foreign Wars as well as a local Boy Scout troop.

Okaloosa County has a flag retirement boxes located at the Bracken Building in Crestview and at the Board of County Commissioners office in Shalimar at 1250 N. Eglin Pkwy, Suite 100.