MARYSVILLE — Members of American Legion Post 178 of Marysville performed their annual flag retirement ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 7, behind Carr’s ACE Hardware on Second Street, honorably retiring hundreds of American flags.
“As military veterans, we don’t want to disservice our flags by having them sit and collect dust,” said Vice Cmdr. Anthony Juarez.
Post 178 performs an annual flag retirement ceremony in which flags that have been dropped off at the Legion Post hall are inspected, burned and disposed of in an acceptable fashion.
“This is the most appropriate way to retire the flag,” said Vice Cmdr. Jennifer Smolen. “If they weren’t retired, they would be sitting around gathering dust or looking ragged on poles. I think part of our mission is providing support programs and community education opportunities — including educating the community on the importance of the flag and ways to honor it.”
Post Resolution 373 was passed in 1944, encouraging proper respect for the flags of the United States of America by performing a public flag disposal ceremony. Dozens of Marysville residents attended the ceremony and were given the opportunity to place a flag into the flames.
“Part of what we do is educating people on proper flag etiquette,” said Post Cmdr. Jeremiah Fort, who led the ceremony. “We wanted to give people the opportunity to come down and see one part of flag etiquette. And it’s hands on. There are kids here, which is great because it gets them involved now so that they know and have a respect for the flag as they get older.”
“Legion Post 178 was thrilled to see members of the community enjoying this patriotic event. Members of the public dropped off more flags that day, and some brought families and stayed for the ceremony. We were glad to see the service was enjoyed by Marysville friends and neighbors,” said Fort.
Post 178 accepts American flags in a red post office box outside their office at 119 Cedar Ave. in Marysville. They retired 58 flags and have already collected more in their dropbox.
“We were lucky to partner with Carr’s ACE Hardware on this new location,” said Fort. “The parking was easy, the ground was level and there was room to perform our short ceremony. We’ll be talking with owner Darlene Scott about maybe partnering again in the future.”
