What is quickly becoming a local tradition will be continues in September when the Third Annual POW-MIA Recognition Ceremony and Flag Retirement is held in downtown Great Bend on Sept. 17.
According to information on the event, it will open on that Saturday with patriotic music at 4:30 p.m. and the program will begin at 5 p.m.
This event includes a solemn ceremony to honor the flag and those who suffered to serve it, according to the organizers of the Third Annual POW-MIA Recognition Ceremony and Flag Retirement.
As part of that retirement, unserviceable flags are ceremonially burned and to get ready for the event, the organizers are once again accepting worn and unserviceable flags. They can be brought to the American Legion Post 180, 1011 Kansas Avenue, or call 793-5912 for more information.
Flags can be dropped off at the Legion Post during operating hours, or they can be left at the door and they’ll be collected later.
More details on the event will be released closer to it, but flags can begin to be collected now.
At the first event, there were almost 1,400 American flags brought by the public for retirement.
The U.S. Flag Code addresses the issue. “The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.”
However, the Flag Code doesn’t specify what “no longer a fitting emblem” means.
In common use, that refers to flags that have been allowed to be tattered, sun-bleached or stained and dirty.
Such flags should be replaced by new ones and the old ones retired.