To many it is just a piece of cloth with no meaning. However, if you've ever spent a night on a fire base and didn't know whether you would survive until morning, only to see the coming of the sun the next morning and your nation's flag still flying above the CP, well, it tears you up.
In my closet there sits a small box with an American flag neatly folded along with a letter that I addressed to my children. That flag has traveled around the world with me and has been to 23 countries. I open that box every year or two to make sure it is still safe and it never fails to fill me with the same emotions it did when I first carried it. My wife once ask me why I keep it when it makes me so emotional to look at it. I tell her I keep it to remind me of those who never returned with me. I have always, and will always believe that the real heroes in this life do not walk among us, but rather they rest at Arlington and the many places like it. That flag reminds me of this every day.
Thank you for sharing @slonezp.