Threads of Honor - Softcover

Gordon Ryan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0972807101 ISBN 13: 9780972807104

Publisher: Mapletree Pub Co, 2003

Synopsis

Threads of Honor is a true story of courage and sacrifice, of Boy Scouts learning about perseverance, of the great men and women of the American space program, and of the unquenchable spirit of a most remarkable American flag.

The book’s rich appendix adds a 28-page history of the American Flag over its 230-year existence, including key events in American history that involved the flag. Following that is an authoritative section on flag care and proper flag etiquette, according to official guidelines adopted by the United States Congress. This appendix was not present in the first edition—only in the second edition.

There is a photo gallery documenting the incredible story of this flag, which is also new to the second edition and may not be present in used copies.

About this title

About the Author

Gordon Ryan is a published novelist, a former City Manager, and served in the United States Air Force with Major Tolbert. Ryan is married to Colleen Sterling of Christchurch, New Zealand, where they have been residing for the past few years. They are in the process of relocating back to the United States. They are the parents of six children and eleven grandchildren.

Threads of Honor—the story of Troop 514 and the American flag’s amazing journey aboard a space shuttle—was written as a result of Ryan’s lifelong friendship with Scoutmaster Bill Tolbert.

From the Inside Flap

An enormous American flag unfurled himself from the ceiling and hung majestically before us. Then he began to speak in a deep, sonorous voice.

"Who s that?" I whispered to my older sibling, who lay folded neatly on the shelf next to me.

"Shush," he whispered back. "That s the Flag Master the Keeper of the Sacred Thread."

"Oh," I replied and listened.

I was astonished at the Flag Master s enormity and impressed by the authority with which he addressed us. He spoke with great feeling about the history of our nation and explained that each of us would go from that place to an assignment that would be uniquely ours. He emphasized the responsibility that was ours to fly with dignity and a sense of honor.

Then he said that some of us would journey to Washington, D.C. There, we would begin our service in a brief but glorious moment. It would be our privilege to be hoisted on a staff mounted on the roof of the Capitol Building. After flying briefly there, we would be reassigned. Each of us could look forward to a lifetime of service, with the added prestige of having been a "United States Capitol flag."

My last night at the Valley Forge Flag Company I gathered the courage to ask the Flag Master if he knew my destiny. With a slight ruffle of his edges, he looked down at my small, four-by-six-foot stature and, speaking with a voice that seemed to reverberate through eternity, answered in a way that inspired me, but also puzzled me a little .

"I know your history young man, but your destiny is in your threads. See that you honor them."

The process that Bill Tolbert was required to go through in his attempt to obtain flight clearance for Troop 514 s flag would have deterred a lesser man. But the responsibility he felt for those young men, now numbering fourteen scouts, and the image of their eager faces at each meeting, kept him going. Their excitement over the possibility that their flag might actually go into space and return inspired him to persist. He enlisted the help of all his resources to get the flag included in the official flight kit. Finally, beaming with satisfaction, he stood one night before the troop and announced that their request had been approved. Troop 514 s flag would be on the next shuttle mission, due to launch in eight weeks.

"... I felt the cartilage in my back stretching and it struck me that I had never stood so tall that after twenty years in a military uniform, the proudest moment of my life had come while wearing a scoutmaster s uniform, standing beside that flag." Major William Tolbert

Edition details

• Publisher: Mapletree Pub Co
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0972807101
• ISBN 13: 9780972807104
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 80