How To Properly Retire The American Flag Grant Lindsay

The American Flags history-on June 14,1777 the flag was adopted by the union and has 13 stripes for the 13 original colonies and the stripes alternate red and white. The red stands for the bloodshed of our brave men that went off to war and fought for everyone's freedom from the British. The white stands for the purity and innocence of our great country. The blue field represents stands for perseverance of our brave men in our country. Each star stands for the states that get emitted into the union and starts with Delaware and goes to Hawaii. The flag has had three main versions throughout

its life representing our country. 

Who can retire the American Flag?

The American flag is a time-honored symbol that every American looks up to at some point in His/her life. The flag must be respected at all times. This means that the flag should also be respected after it's lowered from its flag pole for the last time. Anyone is allowed to retire the flag if it's done is a proper respectful way. Many people do not have enough time to retire a single flag by themselves so they turn to organizations like the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) or the American Legion.

There isn't one right way-
There isn't one way to retire the American flag. The most common is the retirement by burning in a respectful manner and when the flag truly needs to be retired. The way that BSA has adopted is the cutting and then burning way of things. Not all American Flags are treated equally if the flag is a small gravestone flag that is the size of your palm you have to cut the flag into quarters and then retire it into the fire

When is it time to retire the flag?

An American flag should be retired when it's no longer fit to be displayed as a symbol of our country. This can mean that the flag should be retired when it is worn or tattered or soiled in some sort that most would not see it fit to fly as a symbol of our country.

Pro-Tip

The flag can be dropped off at any U.S post office box and the flag will be turned over to local boy scout troops or American legion post.

What are the three different American flags?
Many Americans do not know that we have seen three different variations of the American Flag in the past few years. these include the 48-star flag, the 49-star flag, and the 50-star flag.

• The 48 -star flag - The 48 star flag was flown over the white house for 47 years as a symbol of our country. This flag changed to the 49 star flag on July 4th 1959 when Alaska joined the union

• The 49- star flag - The 49 star flag was flown over the white house for the shortest time at just one year. This makes the 49 star flag very special and rare due to its short production period. The flag was changed after that short year due to Hawaii joining the union.

• The 50- star flag  - The 50 star flag was made after Hawaii joined the union on august 21, 1959 and this flag is our current flag that fly's over the white house now.

What are the steps to retire the flag

1. The first step is to cut away the blue field from the 13 stripes. once this is cut away then the flag ceases to be a flag. This does not mean that you should treat it with any less respect than before, but it is now ok if one of the pieces touches the floor.
2. The second step is to Cut away the stripes starting from top to bottom of the flag. The first red stripe from the top will be stripe number one and you should keep all of the stripes in order the whole time throughout the ceremony.
3. The third step is to start with the blue field(s) and slowly feed the fire being careful not to smother the flames and put out the fire. Repeat this step until all of the blur fields have been retired. 
4. The fourth step is to start with stripe one and feed the fire slowly still being careful not to smother the flames out due to most flags are made from polyester to stand up to the weather better over the course of the flags life.
5. The fifth and final step is to repeat step number four with the remaining 12 stripes until the flag is fully retired in the fire.

Can you Retire different flags at the same time?

The answer is yes you can retire different flags at the same time like the POW flag and the State flags if they also need to be retired at that time. You would take the flags and cut them up into quarters and retire them all at the same time if they are not state flags. if you have multiple state flags the proper way to do it is to retire them in order of which they joined the union.