Citizens Clamor for a Moment of (Old) Glory at the Capitol

Patriotism has its price, but it ain’t much: $10.27.

For this relatively meager sum, hundreds of Orange County citizens have had the flag of the United States of America flown in their honor over the Capitol of the United States of America, then packed with a fancy certificate and shipped to their homes, postage included.

OK, so the flag stays up there around half a second.

“We run it up to the top of the pole, pause and bring it back down,” said William Raines, spokesman for the Architect of the Capitol, which handles flag-flying.

“I don’t care,” responded Wayne Markison of Huntington Beach, who bought four of them. “It flew.”

In California, environmentalists will plant you a tree. In Berlin, you can get a hunk of the wall. Here in Washington, they fly you a flag, a practice so popular the Capitol installed six flagpoles precisely for this purpose.

A Flag Office had to be created to handle the demand--as many as 350 a day. It takes three full-time typists to keep up with all the certificates, and the backlog is weeks long. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) recently informed his constituents of the flag offer, and his office promptly was inundated with nearly 700 orders.

“It was crazy,” an aide said happily. “The office filled up with flag boxes.”

People give flags as wedding gifts, to commemorate the births of babies, to celebrate Eagle Scout status. One guy had it flown the day his divorce was final. “We try to avoid that kind of thing. This is something very honored,” Christine Benza, Flag Office supervisor, admonished.

It is said that Frank Sinatra has one. Markison bought one for himself and gave three to his parents and two sisters in the Midwest for Christmas presents. He’s saving his to fly on the flagpole of his front lawn on Fourth of July, his birthday.

“People are so patriotic. They want so badly to have a flag. It tells a story in itself,” Benza said. She has been working in the Flag Office for 34 years.

Every weekday at about 12:30 p.m., a crew goes to the roof of the Capitol’s west front with a bunch of flags and starts raising. The flag-studded certificate attests that “This flag was flown in honor of (your name here).”

This rite of patriotism had its beginnings in 1937 when the used flags that flew over the Capitol were presented to members of Congress. (A flag’s average life span on Capitol Hill is 30 days, considering the stiff winds up there; the maintenance crew does not abide frayed flags.)

The demand eventually outstripped the supply, and in 1955 someone conceived a plan to allow members of the public, through their local Congress member, to buy a new flag and have it flown, even if for a brief but shining moment.

Ever since, the Flag Office has been a sort of unofficial thermometer that measures the nation’s mood.

Orders boomed in 1959 when Alaska and Hawaii were admitted into the union. In the rebellious ‘60s, hardly anybody wanted a flag.

On July 4, 1976, the Flag Office handled 10,471 bicentennial orders in a single day. Staff members started raising them at midnight and worked around the clock. Extra flagpoles had to be installed. Another record was set during the Gulf War, with 154,224 flown that year. The demand was so great, the flag supply store ran out of flags.

The most popular model is the 3-by-5 in cotton ($10.47) or nylon ($9.66). But if one is feeling particularly spirited, the 5-by-8 version is also available for $21.58 in cotton, $18.25 in nylon. The prices cover all government costs.

Those wishing to order a flag should contact their Congressional office. If it is desired that the flag be flown on a specific day, officials suggest the request be made weeks, even months, in advance.