First flag retirement held at Pool's Bluff

Members of Boy Scout Troop 86 prepare to retire the
star field from the first flag retired during Tuesday's
Flag Day ceremonies at the Pool's Bluff Veterans' Memorial
(Photo by John H. Walker)

Flag Day 2011 came to a close in Washington Parish with the retirement of a large number of flags that had served their country well.

Patrick Miller

Some tattered, some torn, some soiled and some faded, these flags of the United States of America were retired by members of Troop 86 of the Boy Scouts of America at the Pool's Bluff Veterans' Memorial Tuesday evening. An audience of about 25 persons attended.

Colin McGehee

"This is the first time we've held a retirement ceremony here," troop leader Louis Murray said. "It's very fitting that we do so, because "Bear" Stewart, while not a member of Troop 86, was a member of another troop and we camped together and he did things for this troop that no one ever knew about ... some of them shortly before his death."

Bentley Roberts

Murray explained that in honor of Stewart, members of Troop 86 wear the Bear

The centerpiece of the memorial is a granite obelisk with David "Bear" Stewart's name engraved, along with the date of his death — Aug. 3, 2005 in Haditha, Iraq.

Chance Broadway

Murray explained to the audience that the occasion was solemn and asked them to remain silent during the ceremony. He then gave the meaning of the flag and her colors and how they came together ... moving through history with the wars in which the flag has flown, as well as other battles.

Murray was joined in the ceremony by four Scouts — Patrick Miller, Colin McGehee, Bentley Roberts and Chance Broadway — who also read portions of the history to the audience.

Scoutmaster Vaughn Gibson (r)
cuts one of the red stripes from
the flag. (Photo by John H. Walker)

Once that part of the ceremony was completed, Scoutmaster Vaughn Gibson led the troop in cutting the flag apart, stripe by stripe, and then remove the star field. As the flag was cut apart, and was no longer a flag, each stripe was placed on the fire. When it came time to retire the star field, Troop 86 led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance before placing the entire blue star field on the fire.

Following that, Murray invited members of the audience to take part in the retirement of subsequent flags.

The activities concluded with Gibson presenting a number of advancement badges and pins, as well as merit badges, to troop members.

(Published first at http://www.wpnewsblog.blogspot.com)