The realistic free fermionic models have had an intriguing success in expla
ining different properties of the observed particle spectrum. In this paper
we discuss in some detail the anomalous U(1) symmetry which exists in thes
e models. We study the properties of the anomalous U(1) in both the more re
alistic NAHE-based free fermionic models and those in a general NAHE class.
Appearance of an anomalous U(1) in the more realistic NAHE models is shown
to be an effect of reduction of world sheet supersymmetry from (2, 2) to (
2, 0). We show, however, that in more general (2, 1) and (2, 0) models, all
U(1) can remain anomaly-free under certain conditions. Several phenomenolo
gical issues related to the anomalous U(1) are discussed. In particular, we
note that in some examples the anomalous U(1) arises from the breaking E-6
--> SO (10) x U(1)(A), resulting in U(1)(A) being family universal.