Proper Military flag disposal ceremony

[USMC_Color_Sergeant]

I'm a US Marine and the Color Sergeant for my Battalion. A few of our National Ensign need to be properly disposed of. I have reviewed the all the order and directives that I know of and I cannot find how to properly dispose of them. I know that you must separate the Field of Valor from the Stripes, burning the strips first and then the Field of Valor but other than that I have no idea has to how the ceremony goes. My battalion SgtMaj wants to gather the Battalion and properly dispose of the National Ensign and has left it up to me to figure out the proper way to do it. He knows it can and has been done but he too is unsure of how. Now I now has Marine we should know how to do this but this is not an everyday event and very little is written on the subject, what orders and directives that are written that I have found are very vague in this area. Please help point me in the right direction.

[Peter Ansoff]

Greetings, and welcome to the forum! It's always good to have the Marines on board.

The relevant reference (which you are probably aware of already) is the USMC Flag Manual, MCO 10520. Section G.4.c says:

"Flags determined not to have historical value will be destroyed by the parent organization, privately by burning, with no suggestion of irreverence to its military or national significance, unless its retention as a display memento is desired by the organization."

"Privately" would imply that the destruction should not be a public ceremony. Obviously, the burning should be conducted with dignity.

You wrote: "I know that you must separate the Field of Valor from the Stripes, burning the strips first and then the Field of Valor . . ."

To my knowlege, there is nothing that says you "must" do this. Many individual organizations, such as the American Legion, have created their own ceremonies for flag-burning, but there is no law or regulation on the subject. The civilian flag code (which is codified in 4 USC 1) just says:

"The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning."

Personally, I don't like the idea of cutting the flag into pieces -- it sounds more like some kind of pagan ritual rather than the dignified retirement of a national symbol. (That's just my opinion, of course!)

I hope that this information is useful. Again, welcome!

Semper Fi,

Peter Ansoff

[american_flag_uk]

hello there!!

as Peter siad - there isn't mreally an official way to retire the flag... no set ceremony but the flag code does suggest burning the flag- but this leaves the matter of ceremonies out in the open...

basically it is doing what you would find to be a respectful end to the flags duties.
you COULD cut the flag into pieces and burn each piece seperatly - but myself persoanlly i dont like this method.. i dont like to see the flag get mutilated before it is burned...

i had one flag to retire not long ago...and i just happened to spot a small outdoor incinerator in my boyfriends back yard.. so i took the flag and i kissed it and then put it inside there and i just stood and watched for a while and we decided to sing 'America the Beautiful' before leaving it be to finish off

but that was just my way of doing it

with several flags it would be beat to either have an open fire - or better yet have a fire in an oil drum or similer can

this is one of several retirement videos there is on youtube
YouTube - American Flag Retirement

this one features the military burning some flags - by doing 3 flags at a time by 3 men into 3 oil drums- the flags are folded when they are put into the cans and after they are dropped in the 3 men salute.

please let us know how you get on!

[garyzreiter]

Thank you for the information on "other" military flag disposal. When I was a scout leader, several organizations gave us their worn or old American flags to dispose of by burning. We had a prepared reading to recite during the flag retirement ceremony, (proper burning). When I left the scouting program our troop was making a trip to Cheyenne,WY to present a proper ceremony to the State Legislature for "retiring" the Wyoming State Flag with dignity.