Retiring Old Glory: burning ceremony for used flags brings veterans, community together

Tyler Auffhammer, The Mountaineer, Waynesville, N.C.
·2 min read

Nov. 7—For the men and women who fought under our country's flag in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm and all other conflicts, foreign and domestic, gracefully retiring tattered versions of "Old Glory" is just another step in what they call their patriotic duty.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Waynesville serves as a collection site for old and worn American flags — bringing in about 600 a year — which are then properly retired with a formal burning ceremony.

"We get flags from all over, from people dropping them in the flag drop box to the big ones at the post office," said Chris Anders, auxiliary president of the VFW Post 2505.

The VFW hosted its first "flag retirement ceremony" in 2015. Since then, the VFW has hosted at least one retirement ceremony every Memorial Day and Veterans Day. The VFW has been receiving so many flags recently, however, that it added a retirement ceremony on Independence Day, too.

The flag retirement ceremony on Veterans Day constitutes a community event coinciding with an annual fish fry. It will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11. Members of the public are invited to attend.

Members of the Waynesville American Legion, the Canton American Legion and Canton VFW, and the Boy Scouts will all bring their collected flags to Post 5202 to create one significant event. Anders expects members of the Waynesville Fire Department to be in attendance, too.

Getting flags has never been an issue for the VFW. A flag drop box in the front of the building provides a place where people can drop their used flags 24 hours a day.

Post 5202 is inundated with flags, from the drop box to donations to people sending them in the mail. Even as Anders was being interviewed, another member told him they received a handful of flags in the mail just that day.

Retiring flags is an integral part of the VFW's traditions and culture, but it's actually a law.

Rules on properly flying the flag were established by the National Flag Conference in June 1923 in Washington. Its members created the Flag Code, which states that "the flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing."

The American Legion passed a flag retirement ceremony resolution in 1937, which stated that the approved method of disposing of used flags was burning.

But burning flags has taken on a different meaning over the past few decades. And since "Old Glory" is considered a sacred symbol, burning it in an undignified way would be considered desecrating the flag. That's why the American Legion, VFW and other veteran organizations hold ceremonies that follow strict rituals.