The original flag sown by Robert G. Heft has been flown over the white house, all 50 state capitols and over 121 American embassies and was damaged in an attack in Saigon in 1967. Courtesy photo

LINCOLN, CA (MPG) - The date was July 14, 1777.  A flag consisting of 13 stars and 13 stripes was recognized by Congress as the first United States flag. History has it that our first flag was sewed by Betsy Ross. 

It was red, white and with a field of blue with 13 stars representing each state of our union and seven red stripes and six white stripes, again a total of 13.  When Vermont and Kentucky were admitted in 1892, they added two stars as well as two stripes. Realizing that adding a stripe for each future state would be cumbersome, Congress decided to revert back to 16 stripes in 1818.

The 15 striped flag which flew over Fort McHenry in 1814 inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner”. 

Many things have been written about the meaning of our flag since 1777.  Not only is our flag a history of our American symbol but a history of our country and people. It is a unifying symbol of all of our United States.

The following meanings were assigned to the colors in 1782 by the Secretary of the Continental Congress, Charles Thompson, during the design process for the Great Seal of the United States. The red represents valor, bravery and hardiness, white symbolizes purity and innocence and blue signifies vigilance, perseverance and justice. 

Each time a state was admitted to our union a new star was added to the field of blue the year after admission. To date we have had a total of 27 different flags.  Since our first flag was issued with 13 stars there have been 22 flags issued with one added star, two with four added stars and two with five added stars. 

California was admitted to the Union on Sept. 9, 1850 and the 31st star was added to the flag in 1851.

Our current flag of 50 stars representing 50 states was issued in 1960 and is the longest serving flag, 66 years. The shortest was one year, the 49th star flag which admitted Alaska and was designed by the Heraldic Branch of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corp.,    

The 50-star flag was designed by a 17-year-old by the name of Bob Heft. While his story of designing and submitting his design is a great one here is a shortened version of his journey.

At Lancaster High School in Saginaw Michigan, Bob’s class were given an assignment by U.S History teacher Stanley Pratt to prepare a history project of choice and report it in class. It was the Spring of 1958.

Bob prepared by sewing together a 50-star flag and Prat commented, “Do you realize we only have 49 states?” Bob was given a B- grade. Bob did 50 stars because he thought Hawaii had a good chance of becoming a state. He also designed a 51-star flag in anticipation of Puerto Rico being admitted. 

Pratt went on to say "If you get the 50-star flag approved by the President I will agree to change your grade."

A year later, on August 21, 1959 Hawaii was admitted. President Eisenhower called Bob at a company where he just started working, told him his design was approved and asked him to come to Washington to take part in a ceremony on July 4, 1960 to watch the official 50-star flag be raised as the official flag of the United States. Pratt change Bob’s grade to an A.

His original flag that he had sown has been flown over the white house, all 50 state capitols and over 121 American embassies and was damaged in an attack in Saigon in 1967.

Bob Heft, later in life, joined the Napoleon Lions Club in Ohio of Lions Clubs International in 1991. He transferred to Saginaw Downtown Lions Club in Michigan in 1999. Bob was a Lions Governor of District 11 D-1 in 2005-06.

I had the pleasure of spending a week with Bob at the Lions Clubs International Headquarters in Oak Brook Illinois where we had Leadership Training.  He wrote a sketch which a group of us performed. We took second place. 

Bob passed away on December 12, 2009. He was 67. His granite monument simply has his name and dates and is graced with a 50-star flag. He was a humble, intelligent and very patriotic.