Cordele Boy Scout Troop 270 holds flag retirement ceremonies twice a year, Memorial Day and Veterans Day. The ceremony, scheduled for Memorial Day, had to be postponed due to inclement weather. The rescheduled Memorial Day Flag Retirement ceremony was held at the Historic Cordele Boy Scout Hut on Monday, June 3.

As patriotic music played in the background, this year’s ceremony started with a discussion about the meaning of the flag, including what the colors, stars, stripes, and canton mean and how to properly retire a flag. The Scouts then cut a flag into pieces for proper disposal. You see, while not illegal, it is improper to burn a flag. But, if you cut it into pieces, so that it is no longer a flag, you can burn the parts. The one thing that is not cut into pieces is the canton, the blue field with the stars. It is burned intact, because to cut the stars apart would symbolize cutting apart our Union.

After the flag was cut into pieces, those pieces were reverently placed on the fire. Once that flag was placed in the fire, other pieces of flags that had been previously cut up were placed on the fire. In all, we retired several dozen flags.

If you have a flag that needs to be retired, please bring them by the Historic Cordele Boy Scout Hut and place them in the flag drop box that is in front of the Hut.

Scouts who participated in the ceremony were Jake Atkins, Landon Atkins, Dalton Baker, Jacob Frost, and Jensen Wade. Scouters who helped were Scoutmaster John Frost, Assistant Scoutmaster Britt Brinson, Troop Committee Chair Terry Fennell, and Troop Committee Member Brady Atkins.

Cordele Boy Scout Troop 270 is chartered by the Cordele Kiwanis Club. If you know of a young man, ages 11-17 who might like to “Live Scouting’s Adventure” or would benefit from learning about leadership and service to others, please have him come by the Historic Cordele Boy Scout Hut, located at 1101 South 3rd Street in Cordele,. The Troop meets on Monday evenings from 6:30-8:00.