Don’t Trash the American Flag! How to Retire a U.S. Flag

On Location in Rochester NY, today I found a American Flag in the trash on my way home tonight and I saved it from disgrace and took it home for a proper retirement ceremony. As I was getting out of the car with Cathy and the baby to go inside for the night, a old lady said “that she had followed me home to ask what I was doing with the flag that she saw me take out of the trash?” Eve I said to Eve the above statement! Eve asked if I wanted two more Flags that she had rescued from the trash a few weeks earlier. She said that I was sent from God and that she was meant to meetup with me this day! She gave me the flags thanked me and said her name was Eve and that her father died in World War 2 her brother fought in Vietnam and that her sister was a nurse in the US Army.  She said she was proud to see me do this.  I felt her pain and saw it in her face I could see she felt like crying for her loss of her father and brother
This is what I could do to honer our Country and those who fought and died for us today! For the Grandfather I never met who came home so messed up with PTSD and never was the same man he did that for you and I. Now I’m thinking about doing a Proper Flag retirement ceremony on the 4th of July this summer! How strange is life! God is good!
 Retire a U.S. Flag
National Flag Foundation recommends the following as the proper ceremonies for retiring and destroying a worn Flag.
    • This ceremony should be conducted at a private, non-public location.
    • Only one Flag, representing all those to be destroyed, should be used in the ceremony.
    • Two color guards should be used at evening retreat, one for the Flag currently in use and a special color guard for the Flag to be permanently retired.
    • Just before sunset, the Flag that has been flying all day is retired in the normal, ceremonial procedure for the group or site.
    • The color guard responsible for the Flag receiving the final tribute moves front and center. The leader should present this color guard with the Flag that has been selected for its final tribute and subsequent destruction. The leader then should instruct the color guard to “hoist the colors”.
    • When the Flag has been secured at the top of the pole, the leader comments: “This Flag has served its nation long and well. It has worn to a condition to which it should no longer be used to represent the nation. This Flag represents all of the Flags collected and being retired from service today. We honor them all as we salute one Flag.”
    • The leader then calls the group to attention, orders a salute, leads the entire group in the “Pledge of Allegiance” and orders the Flag retired by the color guard.
    • Slowly and ceremoniously, the flag is lowered, then respectfully folded in the customary triangle. The Flag is delivered to the leader and then the group is dismissed.
    • This concludes the Ceremony of Final Tribute.
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    Ceremonial Burning of the Flag

    • This ceremony should be conducted at a private, non-public location.
    • The burning of a Flag should take place at a campfire in a ceremony separate from the Ceremony of Final Tribute. The fire must be sizable (preferably having burnt down to a bed of red hot coals to avoid having bits of the Flag being carried off by a roaring fire), yet be of sufficient intensity to ensure complete burning.
    • Before the ceremony begins, the color guard assigned to the Flag opens up its tri-corner fold and then refolds it in a coffin-shaped rectangle.
    • All assemble around the fire. The leader calls the group to attention.
    • The color guard comes forward and places the Flag on the fire.
    • All briskly salute.
    • After the salute, but while still at attention, the leader should conduct a respectful educational program as the Flag burns: e.g. singing of “God Bless America”; offering an inspiring message of the Flag’s meaning followed by the “Pledge of Allegiance”; performing a reading about the Flag; reciting the “American’s Creed”; etc.
    • When the Flag is consumed, those assembled, with the exception of a leader and the color guard, should be dismissed. They should be led out in single file and in silence.
    • The leader and color guard should remain to ensure that the Flag is completely consumed, and to burn additional Flags, if any.
    • The fire should then be safely extinguished.

American Hero and Army Sergeant Who Gave Life To Save Afghan Child Being Flown Home For Burial

This section Copied from: http://infofeeder.info

This should be getting the attention 
Friday, 30 March 2012 02:39
I’m not really looking for debate on this as much as I want to make an effort to educate people. Sure, the
military has screwed up in Afghanistan. We’ve pissed on bodies, burnt books, and one man has even
committed pre-meditated mass murder. But we’re not always bad. For every one of those stories you
hear, much more like this happen. Its not a matter of foreign relations or “winning hearts and minds”.
Its about caring for your fellow human being, regardless of nationality, race, sex, etc. This man should
be glorified for the hero he is. When I read about fellow brothers doing things like this, I tear up everytime.
I don’t care what anyone says, this generation of service member is the “greatest generation”.
Army Sergeant Who Gave Life To Save Afghan Child Being Flown Home For Burial | Fox News

http://www.debatepolitics.com/breaking-news-mainstream-media/122508-should-getting-attention.html

Army sergeant who gave life to save Afghan child being flown home for burial

Published March 29, 2012

| FoxNews.com


An Army sergeant and father of three from Rhode Island who gave his life to save an Afghan child from being run over by a 16-ton armored fighting vehicle is being flown back to the U.S. and will be buried Monday.

Sgt. Dennis Weichel, 29, died in Afghanistan last week after he dashed into the path of an armored fighting vehicle to scoop up the little girl, who had darted back into the roadway to pick up shell casings, according to the Army. Weichel, a Rhode Island National Guardsman, was riding in the convoy in Laghman Province in eastern Afghanistan when he jumped out to save the girl, who was unhurt.

  • Dennis Weichel 1

    This image, obtained from WPRI.com, shows 29-year-old Sgt. Dennis Weichel.

  • Dennis Weichel 2
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“He would have done it for anybody,” Staff Sgt. Ronald Corbett, who deployed with Weichel to Iraq in 2005, said in a quote posted on the U.S. Army website. “That was the way he was. He would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. He was that type of guy.”

The child was one of several who were collecting the casings, which can be sold and recycled in Afghanistan. Weichel and other soldiers in the convoy got out of their vehicles to shoo the kids from danger as the heavy trucks bore down. But the girl ran back onto the road as a MRAP, or Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle, approached. Weichel swung the girl to safety but was run over and later died from his injuries at Jalalabad Medical Treatment Facility, according to a press release from the Rhode Island National Guard.

Weichel, who had been a member of the Rhode Island National Guard since 2001, had arrived in Afghanistan a few weeks ago. He was a member of C Company, 1st Battalion, 143 Infantry. Weichel was previously deployed to Iraq in 2005 as a member of 3/172 Det 2 Mountain Infantry.

Weichel, who lived in Providence and was engaged to be married, leaves his parents, fiancee and three young children. His body is scheduled to be flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Saturday. Weichel will be buried in Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery in Exeter.

“Tragically, Spc. Weichel has made the supreme sacrifice and at this time, we are mindful of the impact of that sacrifice on his family and friends,” said Maj. Gen. Kevin McBride, adjutant general of the Rhode Island National Guard, in a written statement. “We leave no Soldier behind…. and we will not leave Spc. Weichel’s family behind.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/29/army-sergeant-who-gave-life-to-save-afghani-child-being-flown-home-for-burial/#ixzz1qZ7ZjwzY

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