VFW will dispose of old flags properly

On Wednesday, I was at the county’s Dufort Road dump when I saw something that made my heart stop: A man pulled an American flag from his car, wadded it up and pitched it into one of the dumpsters.

As I waited my turn to pull up and deposit my trash in the next dumpster, my thoughts were drawn to the literally thousands of times during my 22-year Army career that I stopped during the daily reveille and retreat ceremonies and rendered a salute to the colors. I also thought of the many times I was tasked to perform the duty of funeral officer and accept the carefully folded flag handed to me by the head pallbearer and present it to the spouse or parent whose loved one’s casket it had covered. I also thought of my many comrades’ (and eventually my own) flag-draped caskets.

When it was my turn, I got out, fished the flag from the dumpster and later delivered it to our local Veterans of Foreign Wars post.

We had a saying when I was a 19-year-old soldier in Vietnam: For those who have fought for it, life has a flavor the protected can never know.

My hope is that all who read this will pay heed to the proper procedure for disposing of our American flag. It should be treated with respect and burned in a proper ceremony. Here in the Sandpoint area, our local VFW post performs the service free of charge. All that is needed of the flag owner is to take it to the VFW post located at the intersection of Pine Street and Division Avenue in Sandpoint and place it in the box marked for used flags next to the front door.

Our flag means a great deal to our veterans and your doing so will be greatly appreciated.

MAJOR DALE E. WILSON, Ph.D., USA (Ret.)

Sagle