Boy Scouts hold flag ceremony

The Plains Boy Scout Troop held a flag retiring ceremony with members of VFW Post 3596 on Pearl Harbor Day, last Dec. 7. The ceremony was held behind the Plains VFW Post, as was attended by members of the community, as well as area veterans.

Flag protocol calls for flags to be retired through burning, so flags were placed in a contained fire.

The ceremony has been held every year since 2002, and was initiated by Joe Shepherd, a former Boy Scout leader.

The ceremony served the purpose of giving recognition to what the flag means, and the contribution that so many have made to protect it, according to Katie French, who acts as Troop Scoutmaster along with Dr. Don Damschen.

“The event reminds us how we as scouts and we as citizens need to continue to stand up for the issues that the flag represents,” French said.

There are 11 Boy Scouts in the troop, and there were eight participating in the event.

Noah Hathorne, who was a former Boy Scout leader, led the ceremony with selected readings.

“He does such a great job with the whole ceremony,” French said.

Hathorne takes time to prepare the boys for the ceremony, when he talks about the importance of the flag and the importance of showing it respect. The scouts need to be in uniform and at attention and respectful and quiet, which are valuable habits according to French.

“They’re all of the things you try to teach an 11-year-old,” French said.

The ages of the scouts involved in the ceremony ranged from 11 to 17 years old.

Throughout the year, the Boy Scout Troop is involved with a number of things. They usually are available to help the VFW with events such as this one. The troop also helps out at Plains Day, setting up booths for different groups. They do a trade show in the spring, and help organize that event. For a number of years, the troop has been responsible for putting the appropriate markers on gravesites on Memorial Day.

Members of the community are able to drop of flags at the American Legion and the VFW throughout the year. In early November, French communicates with the VFW, talking about how many flags were collected, and how and when the troop will get access to them.

One of the main goals of French in leading the troop is to encourage scouts to take the initiative and lead.

“The whole idea with the boy scouts is that it’s a Scout-led troop,” French said. “The Scout leaders try to take a step back and let the boys run the program. It’s communicating to the scouts that this is something we do, so they need to find out what they need to do to make sure it happens.”

On of the largest aspects of the flag ceremony is that every year, the troop prepares the flag from the county fairgrounds. This poses a bit more of a logistical challenge.

“That’s not just folding a flag, that takes some time because we have to cut the flag into a number of the pieces, which are retired separately,” French said. “That takes a while because that’s a huge flag.”

According to French, The ceremony holds a lot of significance, not only for the Scouts or the VFW members, but also for the community as a whole.

“It’s important for the scouts to see and it’s important for veterans to see that our This year, there were two flags donated for retirement that were unique. The troop had a 48-star flag, and a 25-star flag, both of which were held back from retirement.

The 48-star flag was donated to the Plains High School, where it will go on display.

The troop is currently trying to authenticate it with the Montana Historical Society and the Museum of the Rockies, to find out if indeed it is real, and if so, what is the best course of action for it. According to French, the flag poses several questions.

“Do we display it? Does it need preservation? Is there a community story attached to it?” French said.

The flag was released in 1836, and  the 25th star represents the State of Arizona. Our country only had a 25-star flag for one year.

French hopes that the experience of the ceremony is something that sticks with the members of the Boy Scout Troop, and that they learned something not only about respect for the flag, but about history as well.

“Hopefully we’ll have a good story when we come out the other side of it,” French said.