Honoring the Stars and Stripes
Mystic — Members of Boy Scouts Troop 76 and Cub Scouts Pack 200 helped the Mystic Flagpole Committee raise the garrison flag on the Liberty Pole in downtown Mystic for Flag Day on Tuesday.
Retired U.S. Army Master Sgt. Al McLaughlin played "To The Colors" for the raising. Members of VFW Post 3263 led the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Scouts, chartered through St. Patrick Church on East Main Street, and family members placed flags along the Main Street sidewalks between Broadway on the Stonington side of Mystic and Water Street on the Groton side prior to the Liberty Pole ceremony. The Scouts, acting for the Mystic Flag Committee, place flags for Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day and Columbus Day starting at sunrise, and the Scouts return at 4 p.m. to remove the flags.
June 14, 1777, is the day the Second Continental Congress formally adopted the design of 13 alternating red and white stripes and 13 white stars on a blue field for the flag to represent the 13 Colonies in the War of Independence. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issues a proclamation establishing June 14 as Flag Day. A 1949 act of Congress further established the commemoration.
The flag raising was followed by the flag committee's annual meeting and breakfast at the adjacent S&P Oyster House.
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