Raised above the ruins of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, this one American flag became an immediate symbol of courage, unity, and a nation that refused to surrender. Yet within hours of inspiring millions, the flag vanished.
This iconic photograph, known as Raising the Flag at Ground Zero, was taken shortly after 5 p.m. on September 11, 2001, by Thomas E. Franklin, a photojournalist for New Jersey’s The Record newspaper. Standing beneath a pedestrian walkway near the northwest corner of the World Trade Center site, Franklin photographed FDNY firefighters George Johnson, Dan McWilliams and Billy Eisengrein raising an American flag above the World Trade Center ruins.
Where Did The Flag Come From
The flag had been taken from the yacht Star of America, docked nearby at the World Financial Center marina. Published on the front page of The Record the following morning, Franklin’s photograph quickly became an enduring national symbol of courage, unity, and hope amid the devastation of 9/11.
Daniel McWilliams was a New York City firefighter from Long Island assigned to FDNY Ladder Company 157 in Flatbush, Brooklyn. On September 11, 2001, he was working at the devastated World Trade Center site as part of the emergency response following the collapse of the Twin Towers. Later that afternoon, McWilliams spotted an American flag flying from the yacht Star of America, which was moored at North Cove Marina along the Hudson River, just west of the main rubble field.
McWilliams removed the flag and its short pole from the yacht and carried it east toward the ruins. There, McWilliams joined fellow firefighters George Johnson and Billy Eisengrein in attaching the boat flag to a larger pole rising about 20 feet above the debris. Together they raised it over Ground Zero, creating one of the most enduring symbols of American courage and resolve.
Borrowed, Stolen, Recoverd
The story of the flag raised at Ground Zero became almost as extraordinary as the photograph itself. The original flag vanished within hours, while a larger substitute was mistakenly signed, displayed, and carried around the world.
Source: History Channel
Shirley Dreifus, who owned the yacht Star of America with her husband, Spiros Kopelakis, told their story in a book published almost 20 years later, on August 27, 2021. The 134-page book tells the story from Dreifus’s personal perspective: the firefighters’ removal of the flag from her yacht, its famous raising at Ground Zero, its unexplained disappearance, the discovery that a larger substitute flag had been touring the country, and the 13-year effort that culminated when a possible original surfaced at an Everett, Washington, firehouse in 2014.
After thirteen years of searching, a possible original mysteriously surfaced at a firehouse in Everett, Washington. To preserve the full story and correct the historical record, yacht owner Shirley Dreifus wrote The 9/11 Flag: Borrowed, Stolen, Recovered. Published in 2021, the book recounts how an ordinary flag from her yacht, the Star of America, became a national symbol, disappeared and finally found its way back to New York.
Enter Brian Browne
The mystery took another turn in September 2016, when the man delivered the possible 9/11 missing flag to an Everett, Washington, fire station. Brian Browne, a military memorabilia collector, said a fellow collector gave him three American flags at a Veterans Day gathering in 2006. The flags were inside a supermarket bag marked “9/11/2001 flags.” Browne stored them at his home for nearly eight years without realizing that one might be the flag raised by firefighters at Ground Zero.
In 2014, Browne watched a History Channel program about the missing flag and recognized similarities between the televised images and the flag in his possession. Its appearance and distinctive smell of burned adhesive convinced him it might be the original. Worried that he could be blamed for possessing it, Browne anonymously left the flag at the Everett fire station and identified himself only as “Brian.” His account explains how the flag reached investigators, but it does not establish who removed it from Ground Zero or precisely how it traveled from New York to Washington State. That portion of the flag’s remarkable journey remains a mystery.
Investigators compared its dimensions, fabric, stitching, fittings, and Ground Zero dust before concluding it was very likely the genuine flag. Dreifus and Chubb Insurance subsequently donated it to the 9/11 Memorial Museum in 2016. The museum describes the book as the “mostly unknown, strange history” of the flag displayed in its Atrium-level exhibit.
What About That Substitute Flag That America Honored All Those Years
The hoisting of the flag, symbolizing that we will never give up, rekindled hope for everyone in America and the world!
Looking back, the flag that toured the nation became a second, largely forgotten character in the Ground Zero story. The original 3-by-5-foot flag taken from the yacht Star of America disappeared only hours after firefighters raised it on September 11, 2001. Amid the confusion, New York City officials received a larger 5-by-8-foot flag and understandably believed it was the one photographed above the ruins.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Governor George Pataki signed it, and it was displayed at New York City Hall, carried onto the field at Yankee Stadium, and sent aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt during its deployment to the Middle East. To the public, this was the celebrated Ground Zero flag continuing its inspirational journey.
No reliable account identifies who presented the larger flag to Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Its arrival at City Hall is another unresolved part of the mystery. Giuliani also said he could not remember who gave him the flag or what happened to it.
The mistake was uncovered when Shirley Dreifus and Spiros Kopelakis prepared to formally donate their yacht’s flag. Photographs and measurements showed the famous flag was smaller than the one touring the country. The larger signed flag was therefore not a deliberate fake, but a substitute mistakenly honored as the original. Its present location has never been publicly confirmed.
How a Warren, NJ Company Became Part of this Story
Chubb Insurance, then headquartered in Warren, New Jersey, entered the story because it insured the Star of America, the yacht from which firefighter Daniel McWilliams removed the flag on September 11, 2001. After the flag disappeared from Ground Zero, owners Shirley Dreifus and Spiros Kopelakis filed an insurance claim through their broker, Erich Courant & Co. Although the flag had originally cost only about $50, Chubb recognized that its appearance in the famous photograph had made it invaluable and paid the full limit of the couple’s insurance coverage.
When the original flag was recovered and authenticated years later, Chubb became part of its remarkable journey again. On September 8, 2016, Chubb joined Dreifus in formally donating the flag to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in memory of her late husband, Spiros. Chubb’s connection went beyond the insurance claim. ACE, which acquired Chubb and adopted its name in 2016, had been a founding member of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. What began as an unusual property claim ultimately helped place one of America’s most meaningful symbols in its permanent home.
See the Flag
On September 8, 2016, just three days before the fifteenth anniversary of the attacks, Shirley Dreifus formally donated the original Ground Zero flag to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, with help from Chubb Insurance.
The museum placed the fragile 3-by-5-foot flag in a specially designed protective case and added it to its permanent collection, preserving its stains, wear, and damage as part of its remarkable history. After disappearing for nearly fifteen years and traveling an unknown route across the country, the flag finally returned to the World Trade Center site, where it remains a lasting symbol of courage, unity, and the nation’s determination to endure.
Final Thoughts
Strangely, Now the Substituted Flag Is Missing
The 5-by-8-foot substitute Ground Zero flag was returned to New York in March 2002 after flying aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt and other Navy ships. It toured firehouses and police stations and took on a history of it’s own.
During Game 3 of the World Series on October 30, 2001, Yankee Stadium displayed a different torn and ash-covered Port Authority flag recovered from Ground Zero, not even the substitute flag. President George W. Bush threw the ceremonial first pitch that night. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., preserves that tattered flag.
A 2005 report explicitly says the substitute “came back to Dreifus and Kopelakis,” but neither that report nor later published accounts identify who received it afterward. No one has publicly confirmed its current location. In other words, they did not necessarily claim or intentionally keep someone else’s flag; the public chain of custody simply ends with its delivery to them in 2002.
The 9/11 Memorial Museum now preserves the authentic 3-by-5-foot flag recovered in Washington State, while the substitute flag remains a historically significant 9/11 artifact whose whereabouts and chain of custody have not been publicly confirmed even to this day.
That unexplained ending is itself part of the scandal: the substitute carried the signatures and traveled around the world, yet officials apparently failed to preserve or publicly document where it ultimately went.
One Last Thought:
How Does AI Remember the 9.11 Flag 25 Years Later?
MLH researchers asked ChatGPT a question:
“How about it being your turn? Create an image of the infamous Ground Zero flag on the pile – make it artistic for preservation purposes, showcasing your ChatGPT skills. ChatGPT responded with: “Created as an original archival-style sketch, using selective color for the flag. It is inspired by the historic event but does not directly copy Thomas Franklin’s photograph.
