A graphic designer for an advertising agency in New Jersey, in 1971 the agency got a special request from one of its clients, a flag manufacturer. The flag company had an order from Mary Hoff for a commemorative flag — to honor her husband, who was missing in action in the Vietnam war.
Heisley remembered his greatest fear as a pilot in World War II: “being taken prisoner and being… forgotten,” he said later. Heisley created a stark black and white image of a man in front of a guard tower underscored by a strand of barbed wire. On top: “POW*MIA” for Prisoner of War / Missing in Action. Below: “YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN”.
The image quickly became an icon to remember soldiers who didn’t come home. It’s the only flag other than the U.S. flag flown over the White House, and it was adopted by Congress in 1990 “as a symbol of our Nation’s concern and commitment to resolving as fully as possible the fates of Americans still prisoner, missing and unaccounted for in Southeast Asia, thus ending the uncertainty for their families and the Nation.”
Since then, it has come to be a symbol for the missing from any U.S. war, and is required to be flown on six specific days per year, including Memorial Day. “It was intended for a small group,” Heisley said in 1997. “No one realized it was going to get national attention.” He retired in 1987, and died at his Colorado Springs, Colo., home on May 21 after several years of declining health. He was 88.