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November 26,
2001
Flag to Carry Sentiments From Ground Zero to AfghanistanBy DAVID W. CHEN
But once someone scribbled a tribute to the New York City police officers who died on Sept. 11 — scribbled it in black marker, on a large American flag that draped one of the surviving buildings near the World Trade Center — it was hard to stop. On the red stripes, friends, relatives and colleagues etched personal correspondence: "Uncle Papo, This one's for you!! Love always, Tina & Luger." On the white, they offered sentiments such as "God Bless America," and defiant pledges such as "We didn't ask for this fight but we will finish it now." And on the starry field of blue, they spelled out the names of the deceased, one per star, in boldface letters. On and on they wrote, until finally, after hundreds of tributes, there was no real estate left on the 12-by-18-foot nylon flag, which has traveled from the World Trade Center to a command post near ground zero to its current home, folded up and boxed, at a United States Marine Corps office in Manhattan. At a time when the appetite for patriotic gestures seems to know no limit, few objects are more indelible than an impromptu, communal memorial cloth. In cursive script and block print, the messages capture cathartic expressions of grief and gratitude in language that veers from the personal to the political. Now, the flag is about to be freighted with even more symbolism. The Police Department, via the Marine Corps, plans within the week to send the flag as an inspirational and emotional memento to troops participating in the war in Afghanistan. The Marines — one of the military's tightest fraternities — suggested the transfer because three former marines were among the 23 New York City police officers who lost their lives. "It's going to remind the marines out there why they're doing this, because this personalizes their operation," said Maj. David C. Andersen, director of the Marine Corps public affairs office in New York. "It's also going to bring personal closure to a lot of the people who wrote on the flag. That in itself is almost poetic; it's going to come full circle." The flag will be presented this week to the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which includes three ships and 2,200 marines, as well as tanks, artillery, Harrier jets and other equipment. No one is sure when the flag will return home, but when it does, some police officers would like it to be displayed permanently, somewhere near ground zero. The flag's provenance remains a mystery. But the best explanation, according to Major Andersen and Police Officer James McEniry, with the emergency services unit, is that someone donated it to the Police Department about two weeks after Sept. 11, hoping to boost morale. And for the next couple of weeks, it graced the scarred hull of 2 World Financial Center, beneath a giant banner that read "United We Stand." Roughly a month after the terrorist attack, officials removed it because they needed to sheathe many of the surviving buildings with protective netting, Mr. McEniry said. The flag was taken to a command post area, unfurled across more than a half-dozen tables and earmarked for delivery to the Middle East. At some point, a couple of officers apparently decided to sign the flag, to pay their respects, Mr. McEniry said. They were joined by victims' relatives and others working near ground zero, including members of the state police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Red Cross. Soon, people inscribed the names of the 23 deceased New York police officers, as well as the 17 Americans who died in the October 2000 terrorist attack on the American destroyer Cole. Over the next week or two, people became more creative. "To all the boys," wrote one police officer, Glenn O'Donnell, "Heaven has one hell of a team." Another police officer, Lt. Bill Dinkelacker, wrote: "These colors don't run!!! For all the victims of the terrorist attacks, give them hell." Tom Whalen, another police officer who signed the flag, said in an interview that he wanted to send a message to Osama bin Laden. So he wrote: "Benny, may the last breath you take be spent looking at this flag." Two agents from the F.B.I. office in New York had a message for Mr. bin Laden, too. They wrote: "There are no 70 virgins waiting for you Bin Laden!! It's go time! God Bless America." Above all, the words are specific tributes to the men and women who were among the first emergency workers to enter the buildings after they were attacked by hijacked airplanes. One brother of Police Officer Vincent Danz, 38, a former marine, simply wrote, "My brother's in the pile." And one parent, in an unsigned note, wrote about the loss of two sons: Police Detective Joseph Vigiano, 34, and Firefighter John T. Vigiano II, 36. "For my sons . . . Joe and John Vigiano," the parent wrote. "They gave their lives doing what they loved — helping others. God bless them and all their `brothers.' " As news about the flag spread, some people drove 20 or 30 miles out of their way, while off duty, to sign it, Mr. McEniry said. Eventually, it became so popular that the area was roped off for crowd control. And then an odd thing happened just before the flag was turned over to the Marines. People who had come from great distances and waited patiently in line to get to the flag merely gazed at it when they finally arrived. "They didn't even sign it," said Mr. McEniry, who served with Mr. Danz in the Marines. "They just came to read it."
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one is exactly sure how the flag started, or who wrote what first. 
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