The mission has been clear from the start.
A year ago, when the Forgotten Flag Foundation was launched, its three-part objective was strongly established: reignite patriotism, honor veterans and first responders, and engage in community outreach.
The foundation’s founder and president Chris Staud, a 10-year U.S. Army veteran with family ties to Fairmont, has been “enamored” with flag history since his military days.
During a promotion board, Staud was faced with a question that he deemed impossible to answer: How many trucks are on this base? He scrambled, feverishly trying to add up the vehicles in each company, in each division. He threw out a guess: 3,500?
Wrong.
Just one.
But how could that be?
That answer forever changed his connection to America’s stars and stripes. It turns out the finial atop the base’s flagpole is referred to as a truck. According to Staud, the truck holds three items to be used by a soldier in case of enemy invasion: a razor blade, a match and a bullet.
The blade is to strip the flag, the match is to burn it and the bullet is for either defending oneself or taking one’s own life in a final stand against the enemy.
For Staud, this was an epiphany of sorts.
Through the foundation, he and his all-volunteer team of five board members, 15 strategic advisers and 60 student ambassadors are dedicated to “change the ideology” associated with the American flag. With nonpartisan, politically neutral intentions, the Canonsburg, Pa.-based nonprofit aims to unite the nation under one flag.
Not to say that Staud doesn’t like large numbers. The foundation distributed 4,000 flags at the Canonsburg Fourth of July parade last weekend and planted roughly 1,500 flags at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies for Memorial Day.
In its first year, Forgotten Flag Foundation has focused on southwestern Pennsylvania with town hall meetings and assemblies for middle- and high-school students, educating youth on the evolution of the American flag since its origin in 1776 among other topics. These interactions have laid the groundwork for the student ambassador program that ensures the mission is continued through the younger generation.
“The work we do through the foundation is so rewarding,” Staud said. “This is my legacy.”
Staud was beaming as he described a few current projects.
A World War II veteran was the inspiration for the James Hanna Project, a mission dedicated to flying flags of service members “across the air, land and sea.” Families entrust the foundation with their loved one’s flag for it to have wings again on flights with the 911th Airlift Wing, out of Pittsburgh.
“Together, we’re carrying gratitude, delivering honor and connecting hearts,” according to the foundation’s website.
Working with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, the foundation hopes to erect a 100-foot flagpole at the north junction of Interstates 70 and 79 in Washington County.
A flag raising at Valley Healthcare on Scott Avenue in Morgantown was the Forgotten Flag Foundation’s first foray into West Virginia. With financial support from Enterprise Rent-A-Car on Asturias Lane, a 33-foot flagpole was installed Thursday outside the behavioral health center that prioritizes treatment and services for veterans.
The foundation is a grassroots organization that relies on donations and, only recently, grants to carry out its objective.
Individuals or businesses interested in donating to or collaborating with the Forgotten Flag Foundation may visit www.forgottenflagfoundation.org or email cstaud@forgottenflagfoundation.org.
“Patriotism is the mission,” Staud fervently expressed. “The flag will unite us again.”
