Flag of Guam
The flag of the United States territory of Guam was adopted on February 9, 1948. The territorial flag is dark blue with a narrow red border on all sides (border was a later addition). Narrow red border represents the blood that it ravaged in World War 2 and Spanish sovereignty. In the center of the flag is the coat of arms; an almond shaped emblem, which depicts a proa sailing in Agana Bay near Hagåtña, and "GUAM" colored in red letters. The shape of the emblem recalls the slingshot stones used by the islanders' ancestors. The landform at the back depicts the Punta Dos Amantes cliff on Guam. Charles Alan Pownall approved the flag's shape in 1948.
51st state
In the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a significant movement in favor of this U.S. territory becoming a commonwealth, which would give it a level of self-government similar to Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands. However, the federal government rejected the version of a commonwealth that the government of Guam proposed, because its clauses were incompatible with the Territorial Clause (Art. IV, Sec. 3, cl. 2) of the U.S. Constitution. Other movements advocate U.S. statehood for Guam, union with the state of Hawaii, or union with the Northern Mariana Islands as a single territory, or independence.