Old Glory, Faded and Worn, Consumed by Flames of Memory and Respect

Fred Korth had 6 brothers who served in World War II, all now deceased.  Ray Ingold lost a cousin, Robert Haeni, to a land mine in Northern France during WWII in April, 1945.

Both men remembered their loved ones as they dropped torn and tattered flags into a ceremonial fire on Tuesday, June 14 - Flag Day in the U.S.A.

The ceremony was held at the Muskego Settlement Center and presided over by Korth, Commander of Muskego American Legion Post 356 and a U.S. Navy veteran who served in Korea in the 1950’s. 

A color guard, 2 chaplains, and others attended the ceremony, which told the hard truth of a flag’s life:  That the flags had become “faded and worn over graves of our departed comrades and dead soldiers, sailors and airmen of all our nation’s wars.”

And because the flags had reached the end of their service in “tribute, memory and love,” Korth said the old flags should be retired and destroyed, “their places taken by bright new flags of the same size and kind…and let no grave of our soldiers…be unhonored and unmarked.”

The Honor Guard then invited all present to dedicate a flag to a loved one, by dropping flags into a “purging flame;” a sad but tender moment in the life of a flag.