Ashley Biles|The Thomaston Times
The John Houstoun Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Boy Scout Troop 119 held a flag retirement ceremony last Thursday evening for worn out American flags. According to protocol, when an American flag is retired, it should be cut up and incinerated. DAR Regent Jackie Teal, Rev. Jeffrey Zimmerman of Smyrna Baptist Church, State Rep. Johnnie Caldwell, and Wayne Coker of the VFW spoke during the ceremony. The Scouts presented the colors with a new flag, then cut apart one of the worn flags as a symbolic gesture of the retirement of all the flags, and veterans present at the ceremony disposed of the pieces of the flags. Left to right in the photo above, Scouts Evan Jones, Austin Newman, Dylan Taylor, Coy Kirkland and Ryan Jones of Troop 119 cut apart a tattered flag. Each part of the flag was then put into a separate box for burning. The red stripes symbolize the blood spilled in defense of the nation, the white stripes signify the burning tears shed by Americans who have lost their children in war, the blue field is indicative of God’s heaven under which the flags fly, and the stars unify 50 states as one for God and country. In the second photo, veteran George Ruff places a piece of the flag in a box for disposal. Following the ceremony, Timmy Daniel took all of the worn flags to Moody-Daniel Funeral Home in Zebulon for incineration.
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