With spring work list comes the annual changing of the American flag on the front of the Wagner barn. One would think that you could get more than 365 days from a flag but by the time we take it down it is ready for a well earned retirement.
Some folks are surprised to hear the the flag on the front of the barn is not a new thing. There is a great story about why we fly the flag but it has to fit in the realm of "total lore" since we can't historically document the story. Still it is worth telling.
According to the myth, the flag was first put on the barn as a way of distinguishing it from the multitude of other farm barns in the area. The reason the Wagner barn was worth calling out was it was in-line with one of the aircraft run ways at the Glenview Naval Air Station. For those new to the Glenview there used to be a major Navy base on the land now occupied by the Glen. In World War 2, a great many Marine and Navy pilots did their training at Glenview. As the story goes, these pilots had to learn to land and take off from an aircraft carrier at sea. Since the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were constantly targeted by Japanese and German submarines it made sense to use the Great Lakes as the body of water to do the carrier training. As the pilots left Glenview they would head east and travel out over Lake Michigan looking for the USS Sable or Wolverine to land on. After three successful landings the pilots were deemed qualified for action and sent to war. Today the skies are pretty quiet outside of the occasional passenger jet heading to O'Hare field but the flag keeps flying on the old Wagner barn.
