The First Navy Jack is believed to have flown aboard the Continental Fleet's flagship Alfred, in January 1776. Commodore Esek Hopkins raised the First Navy Jack to signal his fleet to attack the enemy. In August 1977, the Secretary of the Navy specified that the ship with the longest total period of active service display the First Navy Jack until decommissioned or transferred to inactive service, at which time the flag shall be passed to the next ship in line with appropriate honors. Today, the only US Navy ship authorized to fly the First Navy Jack is the aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Kitty Hawk. However, on May 22, 2002, the United States Navy authorized all ships to display the First Navy Jack flag on their bow at port during the war on Terrorism.
The United States Army Flag was officially adopted by order of President Dwight D. Eisenhower through Executive Order No. 10670, on June 12th, 1956.
The Army National Guard flag represents the oldest component of the Armed Forces of the United States and one of the nation's longest enduring institutions, celebrated it's 366th birthday in 2002.
The Coast Guard ensign on the Coast Guard flag serves as the seagoing equivalent of a policeman's badge, the distinctive sign of a Coast Guard vessel's law enforcement authority. It derives from the "revenue ensign" adopted on August 1st, 1799, by Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, with the approval of President John Adams, to identify the cutters of the Revenue Marine, the principal predecessor of the modern Coast Guard. On March 2nd of that year, Congress had enacted the Customs Administration Act, providing in part that "the cutters and boats employed in the service of the revenue shall be distinguished from other vessels by an ensign and pendant, with such marks thereon as shall be prescribed by the President." The law, and the adoption of the distinctive flag, was inspired by ship-owners' concerns that a ship claiming to be a revenue cutter and ordering a merchant vessel to heave to might actually be a pirate.
The Department of the Navy Seal, created in 1957, was to serve as the main feature of the official United States Navy flag, adopted two years later. The Navy flag did not pass through an evolutionary development as was the case with the Navy seal.
