'Without respect, what else is there?' American flags retired in Finger Lakes

HALL – Using a pair of scissors, James Warren began to cut the worn, tattered American flag.

The senior at Marcus Whitman High School and member of Boy Scout Troop 68 intently snipped away, separating the flag’s starfield from its red-and-white stripes during a flag retirement ceremony Sept. 12.

Once complete, the stripes portion of the flag is folded up, then the stars. Throughout the process, each member of the troop stands at attention, saluting.

At this point, it’s no longer a flag, said Scoutmaster Jim Abel.

“It’s just flag remnants,” Abel said. “Once you have the remnants, the preferred way of retiring those is through fire.”

And the Scouts had many flag remnants to dispose of during this annual ceremony, which is held on or close to Patriot Day, Sept. 11.

Like the Super Bowl or a blockbuster Marvel movie, the retirement ceremony is the culmination of a lot of work beforehand, as respect and love of the red, white and blue runs deep, on Sept. 11, Sept. 12 or any other day of the year for this troop.

The Hall Scout troop collects U.S. flags that are no longer fit for service from the community. Three collection boxes – including one that earned a previous Scout an Eagle Award – are placed in the town of Seneca and hamlet of Hall.

The flags come in large and small sizes, but all that have flown in this rural Ontario County have seen better days. To get an idea of the number of flags collected, one of the collection boxes was overflowing, and the others were at least half full, if not more.

Also, Scouts, who assist with placing flags on veterans’ graves around Memorial Day, collect all the flags placed on their graves from the Number Nine Cemetery each year the day after Labor Day.

Chase Frere, who is a ninth-grader at Marcus Whitman and senior patrol leader of the troop, said he believes having the American flags disposed of properly brings past and present service men and women peace and happiness.

“What I like to do is make sure they get retired properly, to show they have been respected and will always be respected for how they served the country,” Chase said.

Once the flag remnants are burned – in this case, in the firepit at the Hall firehouse – the ashes are buried, Abel said.

As Scouts placed the flag remnants in the fire, they reflected for a short time, watching the flags feed the flames before them.

James does this task as silently as he can, his way of showing respect for the brave people who have represented the flag and fought for it.

“Without respect, what else is there?” James asked.

This article originally appeared on MPNnow: American flags retired in Finger Lakes ceremony