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| American Legion Fiueld-Allen Post Americanism Officer David Horne conducts the ceremonial burn of retired American flags on Flag Day 2020 at the Windham Veterans Center. In the background are Field-Allen Post members Eric Bickford, Alola Morrison and Craig Pride. COURTESY PHOTO BY DAVE TANGUAY |
Special to The Windham
Eagle
Following CDC guidelines of
social distancing, face coverings and hand sanitizer, the American Legion’s Field-Allen
Post conducted the annual Flag Day ceremony on Sunday, June 14, Flag Day in
Wndham.
In previous years, the post
collaborated with Boy Scout Troop 805 when conducting the annual ceremonial
burn, but did it solo this year because of COVID-19 restrictions.
This year, the Post
Americanism Officer, David Horn, selected a small number of flags for the ceremony
from bags of hundreds of flags collected by the post since last fall.
The ceremony was open to
members of the public who observed the ceremony from their vehicles in the Windham
Veterans Center parking lot and it also was the first official ceremony for the
post’s new commander, Eric Bickford, who officiated at the event.
Ceremonial officers
attending the event included Commander Bickford,
2nd Vice Commander Alola Morrison, Sergeant at Arms Richard Graves,
and Americanism Officer David Horne. Filling in for the 1st Vice
Commander was Craig Pride and for Chaplain was Dave Tanguay.
After an inspection of the
flags, Commander Bickford offered some brief remarks.
“Comrades, we have been
presented here with the flags of our country which have been inspected and
judged as unserviceable,” Bickford said. “They have reached their present state
or condition in the proper service of tribute, memory and love of our country
and our veterans.”
He said
that a flag may be a flimsy bit of printed gauze or a beautiful banner of the
finest silk.
“Its
intrinsic value may be trifling or great, but its real value is beyond price,
for it is the precious symbol of all that we and our comrades have worked for,
lived for and died for, a free nation of free men and women, true to the faith
of the past, devoted to the ideals and practices of justice, freedom and
democracy,” he said. “Let these faded flags of our country be retired and
destroyed with respect and honorable rites and their place be taken by bright,
new flags of the same size and kind and let no grave of our soldiers, sailors,
Marines and airman dead, be un-honored and unmarked.”
The ceremony
continued with a brief prayer from the chaplain as the flags are placed in the
flames to be consumed.
Words from
the Chaplain’s Prayer included, “to a clean and purging flame we commit these
flags, worn out in worthy service. As they yield their substance to the fire,
may your holy light spread over us and bring our hearts renewed devotion to God
and Country.”
If anyone
in the community has a flag rendered unserviceable, they may be brought to the
Windham Veterans Center on Wednesday mornings from 9 to 11 a.m. for collection
by the American Legion Field-Allen Post 148, Windham. <
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