Lyndonville vets give 2,300 faded flags a proper disposal
Photo by Tom Rivers
LYNDONVILLE – Steve Goodrich, commander of the Houseman-Tanner American Legion Post 1603, puts faded and torn flags in a pig roaster this evening, when the flags were retired and given a proper disposal at Lynhaven Cemetery.
“I’d rather see a bare flag pole than one with a flag that is ripped or tore up,” Goodrich said.
Three veterans from the American Legion – Joe Hausler, Carl Boyle and Steve Goodrich – burned 2,300 of the American flags. Most of them have been collected the past five years. They are typically the flags the veterans put out just before Memorial Day at about 500 graves for veterans. They usually become faded or ripped by about Veterans’ Day in November.
Goodrich holds a flag he has kept for 23 years. It was flown in South Carolina at the Naval Hospital Beaufort. He was given the flag on his last day of active duty. He served in the Navy for 10 years.
Goodrich said the flag became faded in the center and the seams ripped. He said the flag should have been retired a few years ago but he couldn’t bear to part with it.
“There is a time to let go,” he said. “Now is the time.”
Carl Boyle gives these flags a dignified disposal.
Joe Hausler retires some of the flags, which were “destroyed with honor.”
