FLAGS GET DIGNIFIED DISPOSAL; SOLEMN EVENT HELD AT VETERANS HOME

Seven veterans in wheelchairs were among the 40 people watching Monday as the Louis K. Juden Post 63 of the American Legion retired more than 40 American flags in a solemn ceremony at the Veterans Home.

One of them was 67-year-old Jack Watson, who served with the U.S. Army in Germany, Italy and France during World War II and wound up a staff sergeant.

He growled when someone at the Veterans Home first told him they were going to burn flags outside. "To see somebody deliberately burn the flag just tears me up," he said. "That's no good to nobody."

Told the American Legion was responsible, Watson rolled. He wanted to observe, he said, "because I fought for the thing. It's what I should do."

A few years after federal court rulings decreed that burning a flag is protected speech, these veterans said they wanted to watch the flags retired out of respect for what they stand for.

That's why it's called a "flag retirement" ceremony instead of flag-burning, said Charles Woodford, chairman of the event.

"Flag-burning evokes images of the lunatic fringe, the people who pull one off a flagpole and burn it."

Burt Lehman, a Vietnam veteran and Jackson businessman, helped place the flags in a specially built incinerator made of concrete blocks. He participated in the rite out of respect.

"It's a thing of honor. The flag's the symbol of our country. It has nothing to do with politics," he said.

"People who fought and died, they deserve me being here. I'm honored to do it."

Each year, the American Legion collects worn flags from throughout the area for the Flag Day ceremony. A few of this year's retired flags had only 48 stars on them, which means they were made before Alaska and Hawaii were admitted to the Union in 1959.

Individuals can retire flags themselves, but it always should be done with dignity, said Roy Rhodes, the post's vice commander.

"You wouldn't want to burn it in a can you burn your garbage in."

Rhodes favors the continuing push for a constitutional amendment that would outlaw burning of the flag.

Geneva Schwartz of Jackson also came to see the ceremony. Her husband Vincent is a member of the Disabled American Veterans, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion, and she belongs to the auxiliaries.

"We're very veterans-minded," she said.

The Schwartzes display a flag at their home and in their camper when they go on trips. And at social events, chances are flags will be part of the decorations.

"It's one of the most important things in our country, along with God," she said.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, American Legion District 14 Adjutant Tom Giles read from the legion's prescribed outline for the ceremony.

"Since these flags have become faded and worn in a tribute of service and love, I ... recommend that they be fittingly destroyed," he said.

Giles' son Rob, a 15-year-old Boy Scout, concluded the ceremony by playing "Taps."