Posted on 12/06/2004 8:28:47 AM PST by the_devils_advocate_666
Bob Gay/The Dominion Post
Showing the effects of wind and weather, this tattered and faded flag still flutters in the breeze at a grave site in East Oak Grove Cemetery.
BY KATHY PLUM
The Dominion Post
KINGWOOD -- Americans love their flag, but many don't know how to display it, honor it or to dispose of it after it is retired.
"We have skipped a couple generations where we have not taught" flag etiquette, said 1st Sgt. Rick Bloom, of the Preston High School JROTC. "We normally don't have to tell a cadet more than once what you have to do. Most of the time they're anxious and willing to render that courtesy to the flag."
The Preston High JROTC program includes units on flag history, meaning, evolution, etiquette, display, folding and retirement. Students learn all the verses to the "Star Spangled Banner" and take time to think about the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance.
"We're pledging allegiance to that flag of the United States, and each word means something," notes JROTC instructor Lt. Col. Jay Craig. "We question if you say it too fast, whether you mean it. You're pledging allegiance, and that's a big deal."
Senior cadets in the program spend 10 weeks researching the flag, then teach the younger students.
Each day, Preston High's JROTC students raise and lower the flag at the school. The color guard carries it proudly in parades and ceremonies countywide. So, when it comes time to retire a flag, it's a very emotional event.
Tattered and worn flags should not be flown, and the proper method of disposal is to burn them and bury the ashes at the foot of a flag pole. Each spring, the JROTC unit collects worn flags for a retirement ceremony.
Cadets hold the folded flags as a senior noncommissioned officer examines them, to see if they should be retired. After a board of officers agrees to the retirement, the union -- white stars on a blue field -- are separated from the stripes, and the flags are burned during a ceremony.
Familiarity and repetition do not dim the meaning of the flag, said Craig and Bloom. They pledge allegiance to it three times daily, with three different classes, and each retired from the military before taking up teaching.
"The flag is something that Jay and I hold near and dear to our hearts," Bloom said. "It doesn't matter that we've spent 30 some years near it. Each time we see it, it still touches us."
People can dispose of flags themselves, if it is done respectfully, or take retired flags to Streets Store in Masontown or the Rowlesburg Exxon. In April, the JROTC also will have collection boxes up countywide.
During raising and lowering the flag, or when the flag passes in a parade, everyone should stand, face the flag and salute. Stand at attention until the colors are six steps past you.
Men wearing hats should remove them and hold them with the right hand over the heart. Men without hats and women should place the right hand over the heart.
If you are in uniform and the flag passes, salute it for six steps before its arrival and six steps past .
Burning flags that are no longer suitable for display is the preferred method of retiring a flag, as stated in U.S. law. Burying the ashes at the base of a flag pole is an entirely acceptable embellishment, but is not a general custom nor is it called for by law.
Cadets hold the folded flags as a senior noncommissioned officer examines them, to see if they should be retired.
Hopefully this is a mere formality. Most flags I've been involved in retiring looked fine when they were folded.
... the union -- white stars on a blue field -- are separated from the stripes, ...
Again, an embellishment some people prefer, but that is not at all required.
People can dispose of flags themselves, if it is done respectfully, or take retired flags to Streets Store in Masontown or the Rowlesburg Exxon. In April, the JROTC also will have collection boxes up countywide.
Or your local Boy Scout Troop will be glad to take it off your hands.
Men wearing hats should remove them and hold them with the right hand over the heart.
Police, military, firement, and members of patriotic organizations such as the BSA, the GSUSA, etc., are not required to uncover, but should salute as stated.
Here ya go:
http://www.usflag.org/
You can find out everything you should know about the flag
Or Cub Scouts, as well - although they do the retirement ceremony in conjunction with the Boy Scouts.
Can't stress this one enough. It's important for a new generation to learn how to properly dispose of a flag. I knew that they needed to be burned, but that was the extent of my knowledge. I was in scouts for years, and never learned it (probably fallout from the 70s, but it might just have been the fact that the local scoutmaster was a dip. I don't know). I was reading up online on how to retire my older wornout flag, when my wife suggested that we give it to the local Cub / Boy Scout pack - we're friends with the local Scoutmaster. It was good to see the kids treating the ceremony with the respect it deserved, and it was also good for me to learn the proper method of flag retirement.
WRONG! The only civilian group authorized by Congress to retire an American Flag is the Boy Scouts of America. Since the Jr ROTC is attached to a military unit they are also authorized(I think). The American public IS NOT encouraged to retire a flag. The Jr. ROTC program is also not suppose to bury the ashes at the base of their flag pole. The ashes of an official American flag are suppose to be sent to a VA cemetery and be buried there.
Glad you pointed this out,as I was going to if you hadn't already. My next door neighbor is a Boy Scout Leader, we take all our retired flags to him for his troop to dispose of properly.
I'm curious to see some documentation supporting your statements.
All I can find is this...
U.S. Code
TITLE 4
CHAPTER 1—THE FLAG
§ 8. Respect for flag
(k) The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.
michigander has it right. I've been a Scouter for the last 12 years, and was a Cub Scout and Boy Scout for 12 years before that. I've taken an interest in questions about the flag, as during these last 12 years I've have the responsibility for teaching youth about this.
The absolute only reference in Federal law to the retirement of a flag is the reference given by michigander. If you contact your U.S. Representative, they'll be glad to send you a copy of a 70 page booklet entitled "Our Flag", put out by the Government Printing Office under the direction of the U.S. Congress. You will find nowhere in there any directive that limits or recommends against, or prefers, ANY person or organization regarding the retirement of a flag.
Now, michigander and I have given you two references regarding the retirement of a flag. Can you give any reference supporting your statement?
Oh, and there is no official recommendation regarding the disposal of the ashes from a flag, either. You can bury them at a flag pole, or in a VA cemetery (if you can get the permission of the people running it), or scatter them to the winds. At our Scout camp, they are simply left in the campfire ring along with the ashes of the fire they were burned in.
Excellent post!
Thank you!
Our senator arranges for people to purchase flags to be flown over the capitol building.
You can request that a flag be flown over the Capitol building on a specific day of the year, in honor of a special occasion, an individual, an organization, or event. Each flag is accompanied by a certificate, suitable for framing, verifying that the flag was flown over the United States Capitol.
http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_serviceguid/byrd_flag/byrd_flag.html
I was just doing the research to back up my statements.
I will have to go back to my orginal source since I was taught this info from a Vet Nam Vet Marine/ USAF SrMasterSgt that was one of my instructors for OWL training.
So I was passing on as gospel what I was taught. You can bet that I will be asking him for his sources.
Thanks, I'll be waiting. :)
Only certain groups (military, police, veternan's groups, BSA) can retire flags.
Individuals cannot retire flags.
Flags must be cut into sections before they are retired; this makes it no longer a flag, and it can therefore be legitimately burned.
It is illegal to burn a flag, it must be buried.
A flag must be burned; there is no other legal way to retire a flag.
Flags cannot be retired in a public ceremony.
When the flag starts to burn, everyone present must salute and cannot drop their salute until the flag is completely consumed.
A flag being burned can only be manipulated in the flames by a tool of iron, not wood or another metal, to ensure that it is completely consumed.
None of these are true. And while a given group can certainly set parameters on how that group will conduct a flag retirement ceremony, this is not binding on anyone outside that group.
All that is required by law is that a flag retirement ceremony be performed in a dignified manner. Burning it is suggested as the preferred fashion (in my view, especially since most flags these days are made up of synthetic material that takes centuries to degrade in the ground), but even that is not required.
My congresscritter provides such flags free for new Eagle Scouts in his district.
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