Promptly
at 7 p.m. on Flag Day - June 14, the American Legion Field-Allen Post and Boy
Scout Troop and Pack Members conducted a solemn Flag Retirement Ceremony at the
Windham Veterans Center. Prior to the ceremony the Troop and Pack members were
instructed in the origin of these flags that were about to be retired.
The
flags were collected over Memorial Day weekend from the graves of our local
veterans and replaced with bright new flags for the coming year. After
receiving instructions on the proper procedure for retiring the flags by burning
the Scouts participated in the retirement ceremony and in turn placed their
bundle of flags on the fire. Each bundle of flags had been previously inspected
and deemed unserviceable and ready for disposal by the Post 1st Vice
Commander, Eric Bickford and Post Americanism Officer, David Horne.
During
the Ceremony it was noted by Commander Mel Greenier that, “A flag may be a
flimsy bit of printed gauze or a beautiful banner of the finest silk. Its
intrinsic value may be trifling or great, but its real value is beyond price,
for it is a precious symbol of all that we and our comrades have worked for,
lived for and died for- a free nation of free men and women, true to the faith
of the past, devoted to the ideals and practices of justice, freedom and democracy.”
Greenier
then commanded, “Let these faded flags of our country be retired and destroyed
with respect and honorable rites and their place be taken by bright, new flags
of the same size and kind and let no grave of our soldiers, sailors, Marines and
Airmen dead, be unhonored and unmarked”. Following a brief prayer by Post
Chaplain, Richard Drapeau, the Sargeant at Arms, Richard Graves, directed the
scouts to in turn place their bundle of flags on the fire. He then retired the
troop.
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