thedrifter
09-01-06, 07:29 AM
Whereabouts of historic 9/11 flag unknown
By UPI Staff
United Press International
September 1, 2006
NEW YORK (UPI) -- The whereabouts of the real U.S. flag firefighters raised amid the rubble of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, is a mystery, USA Today reports.
The image went worldwide after photographer Thomas Franklin of The Record of Bergen County, N.J., snapped the picture of firefighters Dan McWilliams, George Johnson and Billy Eisengrein raising it on a long metal flagpole jutting at a 45-degree angle from a ledge about 20 feet above the ground.
However, seven months later, at a ceremony where the flag was raised at City Hall, McWilliams said it wasn't the same flag. The one he and his coworkers hoisted measured 3 by 5 feet, while the one commemorated that day -- and to this day -- is 5 by 8 feet, the newspaper said.
The flag has toured the country and has flown on naval vessels, but where the smaller, original one went is unknown. David Friend, a Vanity Fair editor and author of a new book on the visual images of Sept. 11, told the newspaper he believes the flag was switched within days.
Ellie
By UPI Staff
United Press International
September 1, 2006
NEW YORK (UPI) -- The whereabouts of the real U.S. flag firefighters raised amid the rubble of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, is a mystery, USA Today reports.
The image went worldwide after photographer Thomas Franklin of The Record of Bergen County, N.J., snapped the picture of firefighters Dan McWilliams, George Johnson and Billy Eisengrein raising it on a long metal flagpole jutting at a 45-degree angle from a ledge about 20 feet above the ground.
However, seven months later, at a ceremony where the flag was raised at City Hall, McWilliams said it wasn't the same flag. The one he and his coworkers hoisted measured 3 by 5 feet, while the one commemorated that day -- and to this day -- is 5 by 8 feet, the newspaper said.
The flag has toured the country and has flown on naval vessels, but where the smaller, original one went is unknown. David Friend, a Vanity Fair editor and author of a new book on the visual images of Sept. 11, told the newspaper he believes the flag was switched within days.
Ellie