Author: James Breig

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Bio
James Breig is a veteran author who specializes in history. His most recent book is “Star-Spangled Baseball: True Tales of Flags and Fields” about the links between the sport and flags. He is also the author of a nonfiction book about WWII, "Searching for Sgt. Bailey: Saluting an Ordinary Soldier of World War II" and co-author of "The Mystery of the Multiple Mothers," a novel. All three are available at www.amazon.com. His articles have appeared in newspapers and national magazines, including the Colonial Williamsburg Journal (search for them at www.history.org/journal) and History Magazine. He has won many national awards for his opinion writing, media columns and feature articles.
History Lessons

Waving a flag on Christmas…Island, that is

Christmas Island

“How’dja like to spend Christmas on Christmas Island?” Those are the opening lyrics to an old pop song, sung by crooner Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters in the 1940s, folk artist Leon Redbone more recently, and even Jimmy Buffet. But none of them performed it while waving the Christmas Island flag. They’re both real… continue

History Lessons

Texas-sized celebration of many flags

Texas' Lone Star flag

In December 1845 – 170 years ago – Texas joined the United States, bringing with it a state flag and later adding a municipal flag for its capital. If that’s not sufficient, there’s also a college flag for one of Texas’s many institutions of higher education. STATE FLAG The Texas state banner, created six years… continue

History Lessons

Give a flag to friends and family for holidays

Jack Warner (left) accepts a Victory flag from the Merchant Marines

The approach of Christmas and Hanukkah provides an opportunity to give friends and family members a flag, especially if they are now – or once were – in the military. The options are many in a year when three branches of the military are marking a significant anniversary: U.S. MARINES The U.S. Marine Corps was… continue

History Lessons

Remembering Pearl Harbor with flags

A sailor looks at a WWII service flag. (Library of Congress)

One year after the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that launched the U.S. into World War II, Americans commemorated the “day of infamy” with coast-to-coast flags. In Boston, for example, the Bunker Hill Boys Club observed “one minute of silence…in respect of the service men who gave their lives” a year earlier…. continue

History Lessons

Flags flutter from flagstaffs in Flagstaff

City seal of Flagstaff

No city in the U.S. seems more appropriate for an article about flags than Flagstaff, Arizona. Whether it’s a municipal flag, a state flag or the American flag, the town’s name literally lifts them upward. Karl Eberhard, historic preservation officer for the city, explained how the location came to be named after a flagpole. Or,… continue