News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Livingston’s American Legion Post 4 and Auxiliary Unit 4 gathered at the Overton County Courthouse Tuesday night in celebration of Flag Day.
Auxiliary Secretary Treasurer Romanna Schnitcke said the day was meant to show the community how to properly handle, present and retire a flag.
“We had a flag that was flown in Afghanistan at one of the posts,” Schnitcke said. “Just different flags that people bring in. 90 percent of them are American flags that we collect throughout the year so that they are handled properly, and it’s a good way to teach the children, because they don’t learn this in school.”
Several tattered flags were laid out on a table waiting to be properly burned. A line of cub scouts, boy scouts and girl scouts passed down the worn flags to a Livingston Fire Fighter who gave a final salute as it burns.
“That’s why we do this so the public can see the proper way to retire a flag,” Schnitcke said. “I would say the majority of people do not know the appropriate way.”
Schnitcke said it is practice to bury the ashes in a time capsule. In Livingston, the ashes are taken to Memorial Gardens. Schnitcke said she estimated about 100 flags were retired.
“One flag that we are doing tonight use to fly at the Ford Dealership in Cookeville, and it was a very very large flag,” Schnitcke said. “A lot of people were handling it, and you have to be very careful of the fabric that is involved.”
Flag Day commemorates the anniversary of the occasion on which the Second Continental Congress declared that the American flag would have “13 stripes, alternate red and white,” and “13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation” in 1777.
