Honoring nation's symbol on Flag Day, year-round

For decades, Wanda and Ned Veater flew the flag from the porch of their home in American Fork. A few years ago, Ned decided he wanted something more.

So, he had a flagpole installed in the front yard, just inside their white picket fence. He put a spotlight on the corner of his home and directed the light at the flag. He is saved the necessity of having to retire the flag each evening and raise it again in the morning. He loves flying the flag 24 hours a day, Veater says.

He talks about how beautiful the flag is on a winter night, with snow swirling softly around it.

Sometimes when he looks at the flag, he remembers being a young sailor on a Naval Air Transport ship, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, during World War II.

Bob Gray, sales manager of the flag department at Modern Display in Salt Lake City, says veterans such as Veater are typical flag buyers. He says World War II veterans, especially, want to look out through their screen door and see the flag for which they fought.

But for that matter, Gray adds, other veterans like to fly the flag, too. Also, parents of soldiers on active duty are buying flags these days. And, increasingly, he says, he is selling flags to parents of LDS missionaries who want to fly the flag of the country where their child is serving, which makes them want to fly the U.S. flag as well.

At Modern Display you can find a nylon U.S. flag, 3 feet by 5 feet, selling for $25. (A silk screened Betsy Ross is $10 for the same size.) Outdoor flag poles begin at $99 for a 15-foot pole.

But the salespeople will tell you that if you want a flagpole, you don't want to have to take your flag down every time a big wind comes up. So, they will recommend a sturdy, one-piece, 20-foot pole, which cost about $275.

If you count the small hand-held flags, 62 percent of American households own a flag, according to the Flag Manufacturers Association of America.

According to Chris Binner of Valley Forge Flag, a large Pennsylvania manufacturing company, that is twice as many flags per households than before 9/11. About half of those households fly the flag year round, he says.

Gray says he is sure Utah flag ownership went up 110 percent after the terrorist attacks. "Our phone lines rang nonstop for three months."

Paul Swenson, president of Colonial Flag, has no statistics to back up his estimate that Utah is in the top 10 states for flag ownership per capita. Perhaps Utah is not at the very top, he says.