By Jim Roberts
When the 2024 Yellow Ribbon Honor Flight departed Wittman Regional Airport on Friday morning, July 26, a unique passenger was on board. Accompanying the 100 local Vietnam veterans was a 3-by-5-foot American flag, affectionately known as “Flag Junior.” Prior to his flight to Washington, D.C., “Junior” had arrived from Edwards Air Force Base on the glareshield of a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. His journey before that took him to Normandy, France, for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. How, you might ask, does an American flag rack up so many frequent flyer miles, and on such distinguished flights?
Flag Junior’s journey was orchestrated by two Appleton, Wisconsin, patriots, Diana Leonard and Bill Johnston, founders of THE2FLAGS. The program’s motto is “Inspiring Youth Through Aviation.” The vehicle for this inspiration is a family of four American flags and their website, The2Flags.com; there, kids can read about the flags’ journeys and see photos of their adventures.
Bill, a veteran, said the idea for transporting American flags in the cockpits of military aircraft originated in 2015, when he arranged for a flag to travel from EAA AirVenture Oshkosh to Barksdale AFB, Louisiana. From there, the program literally took off, and has grown from the original two U.S. flags, “Flag Senior” and “Flag Junior,” through the addition of two Wisconsin state flags, “MS WIS” and “Missy.”
Each flag has its own logbook, signed by the aircrew and noting flight details. Along with photos from the flights, the narratives of the flags’ adventures offer life lessons for all. Diana said, “Our first plan was to just try to get kids to think about something other than being on their phones all the time.”
On the website, she said, youngsters can follow the flags’ journeys and “learn life lessons, such as how to plan, how to be a team player and communicate, and how to pivot if your goal doesn’t turn out to be what you thought it was going to be.” As an example she related the story of an EA-18G Growler pilot whose life plan after college didn’t pan out. He eventually became a successful Navy pilot and squadron commander, because he was able to pivot his expectations and goals.
Diana said that as word of the flags’ travels spread, requests began coming in from pilots asking to carry a flag. “The pilots and the veterans just love it. We had an F-15E Strike Eagle pilot ask to take a flag to Europe to train with NATO.” And Bill said, “If you qualify, we will give you the honor of flying with this flag.”
So back to the question, how did Flag Junior get to Normandy? A request came in from an F-18 pilot in Japan, asking, “Can I have the flag for a while?” From there it went to Honolulu for a visit to the Battleship Missouri memorial, then on to Iwo Jima. After returning to the U.S., it departed on an Honor Flight mission to Normandy. Diana said, “I don’t think there would be anything more precious to the veterans than an American flag that had flown on the Missouri and Iwo Jima, and was now at Normandy.”
Bill wrapped up the interview by presenting me with a 2FLAGS challenge coin, and noted, “As a thank-you to people for flying our flags, we present them with a challenge coin.” If you’d like to purchase a coin of your own or want to donate to the program, visit The2Flags.com. It is truly a worthy cause, and an investment in the future.