American Flag Retirement Ceremony

On June 10th my parents had their local (Boring OR) Boy Scout Troop perform an American Flag Retirement Ceremony. As I am sure you all know, when an American Flag becomes worn the respectable thing to do is to no longer fly it. But then what do you do with it. One of the proper ways to dispose of the flag it to PROPERLY burn the flag. We had quite a few veterans present including two family members that were in WWII. Both of those veterans had a flag that needed proper disposing of. One of the flags was actually flown on the Arizona during the war. The ceremony included adding certain wood to the fire to symbolize certain things as well as the flag being cut a certain way. Each of the stripes were cut into their respective strips and the blue square with stars was cut as one piece. Due to the length of time this takes they did the full ceremony on the two war flags. The other five flags being presented for retirement were burned whole. It was a very interesting and moving ceremony and the boys did an amazing job. They even have one member that played the bugle. I think my parents are going to make this an annual event so if you would like to be included in future years or have a flag that needs retiring please just let me know and we will add it to next year event.