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A salute to the Red, White & Blue...
Local veterans and others in the Mountain Home community paused to honor the Stars and Stripes as they celebrated Flag Day during a pair of observances June 14.
A solemn ceremony at Carl Miller Park brought together representatives from American Legion Post 26 and Post 101 as they retired 60 worn and unserviceable American flags.
The ceremony showed the proper way to retire these flags as each was burned in a dignified manner, according to Jack Schafhausen, who served as the sergeant-at-arms during the event.
Originally, these veterans had planned to retire hundreds of additional flags that day, but high winds and the threat of rain earlier that afternoon prompted organizers to postpone those plans.
Representatives from both Legion posts will hold a larger ceremony in September at Optimist Park to retire the remaining 1,000 American flags, said Post 26 Commander Tom Coester.
The retirement ceremony in Carl Miller Park began as Schafhausen was accompanied by Girl Scouts Ali Smith and Realei Mills with other Scouts standing nearby. Both girls held a worn and torn flag, which were first presented to Post 2nd Vice Marian Mitchell.
"Is the present condition of these flags the result of their usual service as the emblem of our country," Mitchell asked the sergeant at arms.
"These flags have become faded and worn over the graves of our departed comrades and the dead soldiers, sailors and airmen of our nation's wars," Schafhausen replied.
Both flags were then presented to Post 1st Vice Carol Pawlisz, who conducted a second inspection while asking if they had served in any other purpose.
The sergeant-at-arms emphasized that both flags had flown at public places during their length of service.
Standing at attention before the Post 26 commander, the Scouts and Schafhausen presented both flags for a final inspection. Concurring with the recommendations of the first and second vice, Coester ordered that both be honorably retired from further service.
"A flag may be a flimsy bit of printed gauze or a beautiful banner of finest silk," Coester said. "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 and women, true to the faith of the past, devoted to the ideals and practice of justice, freedom and democracy."
Last Tuesday's ceremony marked the four consecutive years that Smith and Mills have been directly involved with the flag retirement observance.
"We've dedicated a lot of flags to members of our family who have died," said Mills regarding her family's military heritage.
These types of ceremonies have left a lasting impression on the teen, according to her mother, Ashly Smith,
"Ali did her first (ceremony) four years ago when her dad was deployed. She cried. Everyone cried that day," she said.
The Flag Day observance remains a yearly tradition for others in the community, including Walker Dunaway from Boy Scout Troop 82.
"It's an honor. It's an honor retiring the flag and being part of something like this," Dunaway said.
Debbie Gump, meanwhile, remembered performing the same duty when she was a young Girl Scout. Back then, the Scouts were involved in every aspect of the retirement, from inspecting each flag to placing them in the burn barrels.
"It was amazing how many girls enjoyed it," Gump said regarding these ceremonies. "They never knew how to properly retire a flag before then."
The formal part of the ceremony at the city park concluded as Legion members and others rendered salutes or placed their hands over their hearts as Taps played while the first flag was placed in the flames and ignited. The process continued as the remaining flags were burned in the same manner -- reduced to ashes as the smoke rose into the sky.
Long after the crowd left the park to go home or conduct other business, the duty of the American Legion posts was still incomplete. In a separate observance held our of the public's eye, Legion representatives buried the ashes of the flags in an undisclosed location known only to them.
It ensures these retired flags will remain undisturbed through the passage of time, Schafhausen said.
As part of the community's Flag Day observance, representatives from the Mountain Home Elks Lodge highlighted the history of the Stars and Stripes as they marked the national holiday later that afternoon.
Held inside the lodge, the event marked the history of 10 American flags that flew throughout the nation's history.
"The purpose of this service is to honor our country's flag, to celebrate the anniversary of its birth and to recall the achievements attained beneath its folds," said Exalted Ruler Lorin Ford.
The Order of Elks is a "distinctly American, intensely patriotic" organization, so it was appropriate for the lodge to hold this type of event, Ford said.
The flags included the Pine Tree Flag, which first flew in 1775. Adopted by all colonial vessels, it became the banner carried by the Continental forces during the Battle of Bunker Hill, according to Ketchum.
Another noteworthy flags displayed at the ceremony included the Grand Union Flag, which inspired the Star Spangled Banner. It was the only American flag to bear 15 stripes.
For more than a century, the United States flew a flag consisting of 13 stripes, alternating from red to white, with a field of white stars representing each state. The current flag has stood since 1959, when Alaska and Hawaii joined the union.
The ceremony ended with a presentation of two specialized flags. The POW/MIA flag recognizes the plight of those who were prisoners of war or still remain missing in action while the KIA flag honors military members who died in action in service to their nation.
"Our flag is at once a history, a declaration and a prophecy," Ford said. "It represents the American nation as it was at its birth, it speaks for what it is today and it holds the opportunity for the future to add other starts to the glorious constellation."
The Stars and Stripes represents the heritage of the United States, he added.
"It had been repurchased by each succeeding generation and must be re-won again and again until the end of time," Ford said.