Ben Steele watched as the American flag was lowered and the enemy flag raised in Japanese-occupied Philippines in April 1942.

"Many tears were shed" among the American prisoners of war who were there, he said.

With the American flag went their freedom.

Over the next 3-1/2 years, Steele endured the Bataan Death March, illness, near-starvation and brutal forced labor.

He barely survived as thousands of his fellow American and Filipino POWs died around him.

After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, Steele, who by then was working in a Japanese coal mine, regained his freedom when prison guards disappeared.

After American planes dropped food to Steele and his fellow prisoners, they fashioned an American flag from different colored parachute canopies. Taking down the Japanese flag at their POW camp, they ran the makeshift Stars and Stripes up the flag pole.

Sixty-four years later, Steele, now 91 and a retired Montana State University Billings professor of art, still equates the flag with freedom as well as justice and striving for peace.

So central is the flag to those important things for him that it pains him when an American flag is burned in protest or otherwise desecrated.

Here are some thoughts about the American flag from other Billings residents:

- Steve Nitz, president Executive Property Services.

He was a U.S. Air Force weapons-systems officer on F-111 fighter jets for eight years. He was deployed overseas during the first Gulf War.

The sight of the American flag floods Nitz with memories, including those of his late father, Larry Nitz, who served in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot. Steve also thinks of seeing the flag on caskets of his friends killed during military service. Years as a Cub and Boy Scout taught him respect and how to handle the flag.

- Shari Mobraaten, a member of the color guard for Veterans of Foreign War Post 6774 and president of the post's auxiliary.

Mobraaten thinks it is an honor each time she participates in a veteran's funeral.

The flag is a symbol of freedom, which came at a great price.

"We honor the flag with loving care like it was one of our children," she said.

- Eileen Sheehy, government teacher at Billings West High.

The flag is a potent symbol of what brings us together and makes us uniquely American, Sheehy said.

One example of that is opening day of Little League season. Young players saluting the flag and saying the Pledge of Allegiance brings tears to her eyes.

The same feelings are triggered before high school games when the American flag is presented by students.

The flag is at the center of another powerful image, the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima during World War II, a photo of which Sheehy has in her classroom.

When students in her class find out that burning an American flag is protected speech, many are offended by the destruction of the flag. She may use that reaction to start a discussion about why they think that way.

- Jane Howell, director of the Montana State University Billings Library.

A native of Great Britain, Howell became a U.S. citizen in 2008.

Coming from Great Britain, which has had the same Union Jack flag for several centuries, Howell is fascinated by the way the American flag tracks the history of the country. With each new state added, the flag has expanded, changing from 13 to 50 stars.

This time of year is special for her family for several reasons. Her second daughter was born July 3.

- Steve Shandera, vice president for service line management and ancillary services at St. Vincent Healthcare.

Shandera served 28 years in active and reserve duty with the U.S. Army and was deployed during both Gulf Wars. He retired as commander of the 4225 U.S. Army Hospital Reserve Unit.

The flag represents the long and proud history of the United States, Shandera said. Although imperfect at times, the country has been a beacon of freedom and hope for the rest of the world.

Shandera has flown the American flag at his home in Billings since the start of the current Gulf War to remind him of both the pride of those who are deployed as well as the sacrifice and disruption to their families.

Now worn, the flag will be retired and replaced by a new one when all American servicemen and women come home.

Contact Mary Pickett at mpickett@billingsgazette.com or 657-1262.

U.S. flag trivia

Here are some facts about the U.S. flag:

- A variety of flags developed during the late American colonial period as protests against the British featured either the "Don't Tread on Me" snake, the word "Liberty" or a pine tree.

- The flag considered to be the first American flag had 13 red and white stripes and a Union Jack in the upper left corner.

- During the Revolutionary War, George Washington's Continental Army never officially was issued flags with stars and stripes, although some militia units had such flags.

- No one knows who designed and sewed the first Stars and Stripes American flag, but it probably wasn't Betsy Ross. Most historians don't believe the traditional story about the Philadelphia seamstress consulting with George Washington before creating a flag with five-pointed stars.

Evidence suggests that Francis Hopkinson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and an artist, was the designer.

- On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress passed a resolution stipulating that the flag of the United States have 13 red and white stripes with 13 white stars on a blue field.

- Francis Scott Key penned the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner" in 1814 when he saw a 32-by-40-foot, 15-starred American flag still flying over Fort McHenry at Baltimore after an attack by The British during the War of 1812. For the melody, Key used a popular English tune, "Anacreon In Heaven."

- The "Star-Spangled Banner" officially became the national anthem in 1931.

- Until the Civil War started in 1861, the American flag primarily was flown from federal and military facilities, particularly Navy ships.

- Montana's star became the 41st on the national flag when it joined the union in 1889.

- The flag is the theme of many patriotic songs. Among the most popular are: "The Star-Spangled Banner," "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

- The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 and formally recognized by the federal government in 1942.

- In 1885, a Wisconsin school teacher originated the idea of a national Flag Day for June 14. The day was formally sanctioned by Congress and the president in 1949.

Sources include "Flag: An American Biography" by Mark Leepson and the Smithsonian Institute's Web site, americanhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner.