As a Former Marine, I realize that the proper disposal of an old worn out and tattered flag is to respectfully salute it and burn it; but I felt that it held more in life than that. So I mounted it over a wooden shield, which is to signify the Nation's unity.

As for the Olive branches in the grasp of its talons, I was raised to believe that the United States, for which my ancestors had fought and bled, first in the Green Mountain Boys, then in Four Battles with George Washington's troops, and for which Robert Morris who signed The Declaration of Independence, apparently Mom's ancestor, had risked his Shipping Empire fortune (and lost it ) financing the Revolutionary War of Independence , show our peaceful intent in the Commonwealth of Nations.