The letters flanking the eagle on the flag of the United States Virgin Islands are V and I.
They stand for “Virgin Islands” and appear on either side of a simplified version of the United States coat of arms. The central yellow eagle holds a laurel branch in one talon and three blue arrows in the other. The arrangement adapts American imagery while identifying the territory specifically rather than the United States as a whole.
The flag was adopted on 17 May 1921, four years after the United States purchased the islands from Denmark. Its design was developed during the administration of Governor Sumner Ely Wetmore Kittelle, with Percival Wilson Sparks credited as designer; embroidery was completed by Sparks’s wife, Grace, and her sister Blanche Joseph.
The three arrows represent the territory’s three principal islands: Saint Croix, Saint Thomas, and Saint John. The laurel branch symbolizes victory. Before the transfer from Denmark in 1917, the islands used a Danish-influenced colonial flag, so the later design deliberately reflected their new political relationship with the United States.