About

The Journey

In 2012, I met a US Army Captain while stationed in Germany when we were both volunteering as advisors to the local BSA Venture Crew. He kept a personal flag that travelled with him on his journeys in the Army, flying it on the base flagpole wherever he was stationed or visited, mostly a wide variety of Army posts. This was no doubt inspired by the common military/public service tradition of giving flags which have been flown over the US capitol building to recipients on special occasions, such as a commissioning or retirement.

Turkey

Four years later, I was deployed to Incirlik Air Base as the 447th Air Expeditionary Group commander’s exec. Operation INHERENT RESOLVE was in full swing, and Incirlik was overflowing with US and coalition aircraft fighting the war against Islamic State terrorists in Iraq and Syria. It was at this time that I was introduced to the practice of squadrons taking up flags on sorties, usually in honor of a particular person or organizations achievement, similar to the US capitol flags. I purchased a 5’x’9’ flag to have flown on an A-10 and KC-135 of the 447th. The flag was to be a memento of the deployment, but became a lot more.

With several months left on my deployment, I set about getting the flag flown on as many of the coalition aircraft deployed to Incirlik as possible. The HC-130 pararescue plane, AC-130 gunship, MQ-1 drone and USMC EA-6B electronic warfare plane all followed. Flights ended abruptly 16 days after the EA-6B flight when a faction of the Turkish military attempted a coup against the Turkish president, turning life at Incirlik Air Base upside down. Electricity to the base was cut and flight operations were halted for several days as a result of the Turkish commander of Incirlik being one of the coup-plotters. Day-to-day activities would not return to normal before I redeployed at the end of July. The Turkish base commander, Brigadier General Bekir Van was sentenced to 3,901 years in prison in 2020.

Oklahoma

My next assignment took me to Oklahoma, where I was in charge of communications requirements for the E-3 Sentry “AWACS”. I was able to get the flag flown over Iraq and Syria once again while on a TDY to Al-Dhafra Air Base, also the first combat sortie I was able to accompany the flag on as I trained the crews on a new communications system being fielded. A few months after that trip to the Middle-east, the flag reached a new kind of heights, this time getting within sight of the top of the world - Mt. Everest - on an 11 day trek to the 18,519 foot high climbers’ base camp of the world’s most famous mountain. This kicked off an effort to take the flag to notable highpoints when it wasn’t flying sorties, and six days after the Everest base cap, it reached its first national high point - Mt. Koszciusco, the highest point in Australia.

Korea

At the end of that year I was posted to South Korea, a country formally still at war with its neighbor and where numerous types of combat aircraft were stationed to maintain a high state of readiness. As the US detachment commander of a co-located US/Korean air base at Suwon, I had the opportunity to build close relationships with our allies and my fellow detachment commanders around the peninsula, where, fortuitously, aircraft were constantly deploying for exercises. USMC helicopters from Hawaii and F-15s from California were among those aircraft that my friends helped arrange flights for.

With my own backyard in Suwon being one of the last remaining air bases in the world flying the F-4 Phantom, one of the most iconic fighters of the Cold War, I knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. After months of inquiries with the official liaison going unanswered, I turned to other Korean colleagues at the base, plying them with bottles of Jack Daniels to promote the “spirit” of cooperation and show my appreciation to the airfield workers and pilot who, in the end, finally made this flight happen. I was even able to repay my fellow Det commander, who had arranged the USMC helicopter flights, by slipping her toy cat Nabs into the bag with the flag - you can see Nabs in the gallery photo with the F-4 crew, held by the weapons systems officer next to me.

Having extended my tour in Korea and moving from Suwon to Osan, the flag then went up in a number of the USAFs most recognizable aircraft, including an F-16 from the 36th Fighter Squadron and the high-flying U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, made famous by the Francis Gary Powers incident in 1960. The flag’s current altitude record was set on this flight, when it went up “in excess of 60,000 feet” according to the certificate provided by the 5th Reconnaissance Squadron. Before leaving the Land of the Morning Calm, I made sure to get the flag to the top of its highest mountain, Hallasan, and the highest mountain of its neighbor Japan, Mt. Fuji, perhaps the most iconic mountain of the Far East.

England

Following Korea, I was stationed in England in a staff role at an Air Base with no flight line. Efforts were turned to highpoints, and from 2021 to 2023 I took the flag to the highest points of Scotland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Wales, and England, as well as a circumnavigation of the base of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain of Western Europe, though regrettably a summit climb that I was not prepared to make. In November of 2022, a fellow US exchange officer to the Royal Air Force took the flag up in an F-35 from RAF Marham, the newest aircraft on the list.

After taking a summit photo with the flag at the top of Ben Nevis in Scotland, an American gentlemen asked me about the flag. He turned out to the be an Army officer from the Defense Attache Office in London. Now having more provenance than I could fully recall, I explained some of the flag's history, but walked away feeling that it needs to be recorded in a way I can more easily share, so I have now developed this site for that purpose.