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Washington Evening Journal
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Legion retires old flags
MARENGO — The Wandling-Wendel American Legion Post No. 76 in Marengo retired about 100 flags Friday in a Flag Day tradition.
The Legion Post has been retiring old flags since it was founded in 1919, said Post Commander Morris Densen.
According to the U.S. Flag Code, the flag should be displayed only from sunrise to sunset on buildings and on stationary flag staffs in the open. They may be displayed 24 hours a day if lights illuminate them during the night.
The flag should not be displayed in inclement weather unless it as an all-weather flag. The flag shouldn’t be displayed when it is no longer in good condition. It should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.
Legion Post No. 76 will retire American, state and service flags, said Densen. The Legion usually has a box outside the Legion Hall in which people can deposit frayed or damaged flags.
The Legion collects them and burns them during a ceremony every Flag Day.
People can also purchase new flags from the Legion, said Densen. “And they are made in America.”
Following the unserviceable flags ceremony, a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, the Legion fired a volley and played taps.
“It’s kind of like a funeral,” said Densen. “We’re saying goodbye.”
Alan Prevett, an Army veteran, held the trumpet as it electronically played taps. Prevett has been in the Legion for 40 years, he said.
“I got out of high school and three days later I was in basic training,” Prevett said. He served from 1974-1984 in Germany and Korea inspecting tanks.
Following in Prevett’s footsteps, his son is now stationed in Germany, serving as an interpreter for the U.S. Army.
“A Flag may be a flimsy bit of printed gauze, or a beautiful banner of the finest silk,” says the American Legion’s Ceremony for Disposal of Unserviceable Flags.
“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 and lived for, and died for a free Nation of free men, true to the faith of the past, devoted to the ideals and practice of Justice, Freedom and Democracy.”
