Boy Scout Troop 222 retires American flags
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on May 30, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/ETHAN SMITH
Wayne County Sheriff Larry Pierce, left, retires an American flag with Jett Zimmerman, a Boy Scout with Troop 222.
Members of Boy Scout Troop 222 retired nearly 50 flags Wednesday night during a flag retirement ceremony at Madison Avenue Baptist Church in Goldsboro.
Of the total 47 flags that were retired, three American flags were respectfully retired.
Respectfully retiring a flag means cutting the blue square of the American flag away from the red and white stripes, cutting the remainder of the flag into three equal pieces and then burning each piece of the flag in a fire.
The remaining 44 flags, including seven North Carolina flags, were cut before Wednesday night's ceremony began and burned in the fire after the first three flags had been respectfully retired.
"The three flags that were respectfully retired were representative of the rest of the group," said Boy Scout Troop 222 committee chair Gary Gray. "If we severed all of the flags in the same fashion we did the first three during the ceremony, it would keep us here until midnight. It's an understood thing that the first three are representative of the whole group."
There were about 75 people in attendance at the flag retirement ceremony, which many were experiencing for the first time. Of those in attendance, more than 35 were either law enforcement officers, firefighters or emergency medical responders.
"I'm the chaplain for the Goldsboro Police Department, and it's the first time I've ever seen this done. It's certainly the first time we've ever held a flag retirement ceremony at this church," said Madison Avenue Baptist Church pastor Bob Fulkerson.
"I've been talking to several people here tonight, and I've found out that really nobody has ever seen this done before."
The American and North Carolina state flags that were retired Wednesday night came from all over Wayne County from various fire and police departments.
"This all started when one of our members came up to me about two months ago with a bag of flags and asked us if we were retiring flags any time soon," Gray said. "Rick Pridgen was actually the person that brought us the flags, and the first three that were respectfully retired were ones that he had brought us."
After the respectful retirement of the first three flags, members of Boy Scout Troop 222 walked side by side with every member of law enforcement and emergency services personnel in attendance up to the fire burning in the middle of the courtyard at the church and placed the flags in the fire one by one.
After the flag was dropped into the fire, each Scout and law enforcement officer, firefighter or emergency medical responder saluted until it was completely burned, then shook hands and walked away.
The ceremony lasted approximately one hour, and those in attendance left in silence.