Veterans Day suggestions needed

[Momleader]

Our Pack will be serving as color guard for the school's Veterans Day program. Webelos dens will present the new flag yo the school to fly outside. There are some Boy Scouts in the school too. Since our Troop in town will be having a flag retirement ceremony the weekend before the boys have been collecting them all fall around town. I have 2 questions.... 1. What should the boys do with the flag ashes once they are cool - is there a proper disposal method? 2. Have any of you heard of taking the grommets afterwards, cleaning them off of ash and presenting to the local VFW ? Trying to include as many boys as possible

[Stosh]

We've never really worried about the ashes, but we do collect the grommets after the fire has cooled and return them to the families that had us dispose the flag. Some times these flags may have been part of a military funeral and families have said it was a nice touch to get the grommets back.

 

Getting the boys involved, we have always taken the flag and run it one more time up the flagpole regardless of it's condition. Saluted and pledged one last time for it. Then carefully folded best we could into the triangle and taken to the fire to be burned. The boys place it folded in the fire and then salute until it is no longer recognizable. This often takes quite some time and some of the boys say that's the best part of the ceremony because it offers them the time to think about what the flag is all about, especially the one burning.

 

Stosh

[st0ut717]

One idea for the ashes. If you have a home camp site. i.e. you go to this one 2 or three times a year. take the ashes from the flag burrning ceremony and put them in the fire pits of your campfires as your camp though out the year. it makes a great lights out. and get the boys to reflect about their role in our nation.

[walk in the woods]

I don't believe the flag code requires anything to be done with the ashes. If your experience is like ours, you're going to get more of a molten pool of plastic than ashes. I have discretely buried them near a local veteran's memorial on most occassions.

 

We have traditionally done the grommet thing. Again, nothing in the code to my knowledge. We allow the boys to determine who gets them back unless we have a pre-request from someone having a flag retired. We've given them to the local Legion members, city council members, fire department trustees, fire department members, etc. We always try to give one to any scout who is participating in his or her first flag retirement ceremony.

 

If you decide to capture the grommets I highly recommend wrapping some wire (e.g. large garbage bag ties) around the grommets prior to retiring the flags. The wires are easier to locate in the char than the grommets themselves.

[JasonG172]

We do "Visible Support" here in Memphis. WE line Union Ave from 3rd Street (Red Birds Stadium) all the way to Germantown. We have flags and Wave.

We start around 4:30 and Last till 6

 

 

OOPS sorry I should read

 

We ALWAYS bury the ashes so they are NEVER walked on.

[koolaidman]

 

We've never really worried about the ashes, but we do collect the grommets after the fire has cooled and return them to the families that had us dispose the flag. Some times these flags may have been part of a military funeral and families have said it was a nice touch to get the grommets back.

 

Getting the boys involved, we have always taken the flag and run it one more time up the flagpole regardless of it's condition. Saluted and pledged one last time for it. Then carefully folded best we could into the triangle and taken to the fire to be burned. The boys place it folded in the fire and then salute until it is no longer recognizable. This often takes quite some time and some of the boys say that's the best part of the ceremony because it offers them the time to think about what the flag is all about, especially the one burning.

 

Stosh

 

 

I like running it up the flagpole one last time and folding prior to burning. I nice alternative to waiting on scouts to cut the flag up, narrating the siginicance of each portion, etc etc.

[JasonG172]

We always separate the colors, regardless of TIME TAKEN

[Stosh]

Once the colors are cut up, the flag no longer exists. Burning is no longer necessary. What one does with pieces of the flag is no different than disposing of the ashes. This is why the flag is carefully folded before burning. It goes into the fire as a flag, not scraps of cloth.

 

If Grandpa Joe's funeral flag is worn and getting old and one wants to cut it up then they can by all means use it to make an heirloom quilt because it's no longer a flag.

 

One of the reasons BSA has the right to retire colors is because they are supposed to know how to do it correctly. There's a lot of different traditions out there. Some have no basis in truth than someone's neat idea at one time long ago.

 

Stosh

 

Stosh

[Troop24]

From www,vfw.org: [h=2]Flag Disposal:[/h] 1. The flag should be folded in its customary manner.

2. It is important that the fire be fairly large and of sufficient intensity to ensure complete burning of the flag.

3. Place the flag on the fire.

4. The individual(s) can come to attention, salute the flag, recite the Pledge of Allegiance and have a brief period of silent reflection.

5. After the flag is completely consumed, the fire should then be safely extinguished and the ashes buried.

6. Please make sure you are conforming to local/state fire codes or ordinances.

 

While I have never seen this inaction it certainly makes more sense than placing strips of cloth in the fire.

 

From http://www.legion.org/flag/ceremony

 

Commander: “Hand salute.â€Â

(Color Guards present arms. Post Standard is dipped. All officers and members except those on the Flag detail salute. Members of the Flag detail dip the condemned Flags in kerosene and place them on a rack over the fire).

(Bugler sounds “To the Colors.â€Â)

Commander: (at conclusion of “To the Colorsâ€Â) “Two.â€Â

(The Color Guard shall resume its station and detail is dismissed.)

(Color Guard advances down center and places Colors. Members of the detail resume their places among the members.)

 

[walk in the woods]

I personally have never cared for the ceremony where the flag is cut into pieces. To me the action of cutting the flag feels like desecration. That said, we've done it a couple of times because the pieces were easier for folks to handle. I do agree with Stosh that once it is cut up it's no longer a flag. Since burning is only the recommended way of retiring the flag, if one is concerned about all the petroleum in the nylon burning, cutting the flag into pieces might be a fitting end to a ceremony.