By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
Alabama humidity and a steady-blazing brazier made for a steamy morning as members of Billy Glen Rushing American Legion Post 90 and guests conducted a flag retirement ceremony last Saturday morning, April 26.
The Legionnaires worked steadily to retire several U.S. flags in the only manner allowed under federal law. Title 4, Section 8 of U.S. Code requires that, “when the flag is no longer suitable for display, it should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning. Burning it in an undignified manner constitutes desecration.”
The Post 90 members and any guests who wished to take part took the folded flags from a table stacked with dozens of them, and from the several inside the flag-donation box donated last September by Leadership Atmore.
“We’re going to try and get this done before it gets too hot,” said Post 90 Commander Dave Graham at the onset of the ceremony.
Unfortunately, that didn’t quite happen, as a second drama evolved within the original one.
An honor guard of JROTC cadets from Northview High School started the proceedings by lowering the tattered flag hanging from the pole at the local Legion post’s monument park, located at 101 West Church Street, just off South Main. The cadets folded the flag and marched the short distance to the brazier to mark the first retirement of the day.
As the teens unfolded the flag and placed it on a brazier, the humidity thickened and caused a minor disruption of the solemn ceremony.
Two of the cadets were overcome by the stifling air, and a MedStar ambulance was called to the scene. The remaining color guard members stepped in to take the place of the fallen ones, and the ceremony went on without a serious hitch. Both cadets were administered fluids, and reports are that neither required any further medical treatment.
Among those retiring flags in the grill-like receptacle was Post 90 Chaplain Jack Wright, who has been a member of the local veterans organization for nearly 70 years. Wright said before placing a ragged Stars & Stripes on the fire that he was doing so in memory of a friend who never returned from war.
“I’m doing this for Barney Tolbert, who is still listed as Missing in Action from the Korean War,” Wright said before saluting the blazing national banner.
The ashes of all the flags retired on Saturday will be permanently contained in the Old Glory Lookout vault at Cheaha State Park. The final resting place for remnants of the retired flags is a collaboration between Cheaha State Park and Post 90. It consists of a steel vault encased in native Cheaha quartzite and is located on the eastern slope of Mount Cheaha.