The floating Betsy Ross Flag

 

On Halloween night, in 1964, we were drinking beer at Happy Hour at the E.M. Club, like we did every evening and we started talking about things we used to do as teenagers on Halloween nights. The more we talked and the more we drank the draft beer we decided to visit a local cemetery where Revolutionary Soldiers are buried.

We were stationed in Lakehurst, New Jersey, and finding cemeteries that had Revolutionary War Soldiers were all over the place.

It was dark when we entered the cemetery from distant lights we could make out tombstones and markers. In the Revolutionary Soldiers section there were some old flags on some of the graves. They were the 13 Colony Flag. We found one on the ground that was tattered. It shouldn't be on the ground , so we took it with us.

We stopped by a bar and had a couple more beers then went back to the base.

Our friend Dick, who was at the E.M. Club with us declined going with us to the graveyard. He said he didn't feel right in a cemetery at night.

When we got back to the barracks we went up to his cubical to pay Dick a visit. He was asleep. We threw the flag on him and ran out. Then before we got more than 20 feet away we changed our minds. The flag, being on the ground for no telling how long, might be infested with whatever. We ran back in and snatched the flag off Dick and his bunk (or rack - Navy talk).

The next morning at Breakfast in the chow hall Dick told us he had the strangest dream. He said he dreamed a Revolutionary Flag floated in his cubical, landed on him and then jumped up and sped away, out of sight.

We told him he was crazy.