Back in 1965 my Dad attended the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, VA. Big Navy town and lots of GNBA pics and signs. My Dad was Army and I had a couple friends, one Air Force brat and one Army brat. We decided to make our own flag. One guy supplied a queen sized white sheet, the other cut out large letters in black material and I sewed the letters on. We snuck out of our houses and met at midnight. We didn't want to get stopped so we climbed over the compound fence and walked 2 miles to the main Navy base flag pole. Huge pole, must have been 18" in diameter with over a dozen lines running up the pole. We picked one and tied on the flag, but it only went to half staff and that wouldn't do so we lowered it back down and ran it up a second line. It was beautiful, at 1am from a hundred yards away in the moonlight you could clearly read GO ARMY BEAT Navy Class 39. We walked back home and never heard any more about it.
Now the Rest of the Story:
It was over 20 years later before I ever told my Dad that story. His reaction was "You did WHAT??? You put class of 39 on it? So that is what happened." Seems when the Admiral got to work the next morning our flag was on his desk. The whole Armed Forces Staff College class of 39 was called on the carpet. The admiral demanded to know who put the flag up. When nobody fessed up they threatened the whole class with not graduating. My Dad said "Thank God I didn't know anything about it." They later relented and the class graduated on time. So yeah, there is a little bit of a rivalry there.
Starbits
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