CAMILLE BOHANNON

The U.S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which
was established during the American Revolutionary War and
was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter.

After suffering significant loss of goods and personnel at the
hands of the Barbary pirates from Algiers, the U.S. Congress
passed the Naval Act of 1794 for the construction of six heavy
frigates, the first ships of the U.S. Navy.

The American flag was flown in battle for the first time, during a Revolutionary
War skirmish at Cooch’s Bridge, Delaware. Patriot General William Maxwell
ordered the stars and strips banner raised as a detachment of his infantry
and cavalry met an advance guard of British and Hessian troops. The rebels
were defeated and forced to retreat to General George Washington’s main
force near Brandywine Creek in Pennsylvania.

Three months before, on June 14, the Continental Congress adopted a
resolution stating that “the flag of the United States be thirteen alternate
stripes red and white” and that “the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue
field, representing a new Constellation.” The national flag, which became
known as the “Stars and Stripes,” was based on the “Grand Union” flag,
a banner carried by the Continental Army in 1776 that also consisted of
13 red and white stripes. According to legend, Philadelphia seamstress
Betsy Ross designed the new canton for the Stars and Stripes, which
consisted of a circle of 13 stars and a blue background, at the request
of General George Washington. Historians have been unable to
conclusively prove or disprove this legend.

With the entrance of new states into the United States after independence,
new stripes and stars were added to represent new additions to the Union.

In 1818, however, Congress enacted a law stipulating that the 13 original
stripes be restored and that only stars be added to represent new states.

In this Sept. 2, 1945 file photo, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, left, watches as the foreign minister of Japan, Mamoru Shigemitsu,
signs the surrender document aboard the USS Missouri on Tokyo
Bay. Lt. General Richard K. Sutherland, center, witnesses the
ceremony marking the end of World War II, with other American
and British officers in the background. (Source: AP Photo)

Aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrendered to the
Allies (above) bringing an end to World War II.

By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed. The Allied naval blockade of
Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and
its economy devastated. At the end of June, the Americans captured
Okinawa, a Japanese island from which the Allies could launch an invasion
of the main Japanese home islands. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was
put in charge of the invasion, which was code-named “Operation Olympic”
and set for November 1945.

CAMILLE BOHANNON