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In honor of the Stars and Stripes...
The Mountain Home community celebrated Flag Day during a pair of observances Sunday afternoon.
Representatives from the Mountain Home Elks Lodge highlighted the history of the Stars and Stripes as they marked the national holiday during an annual Flag Day ceremony.
Held inside the lodge, the event marked the history of 10 American flags that flew throughout the nation's history.
"The purpose of this service is to honor our country's flag, to celebrate the anniversary of its birth and to recall the achievements attained beneath its folds," said Exalted Ruler Susan Ketchum.
The Order of Elks is a "distinctly American, intensely patriotic" organization, so it was appropriate for the lodge to hold this type of event, Ketchum said.
The flags included the Pine Tree Flag, which first flew in 1775. Adopted by all colonial vessels, it became the banner carried by the Continental forces during the Battle of Bunker Hill, according to Ketchum.
Another noteworthy flag displayed at the ceremony included the Grand Union Flag, which inspired the Star Spangled Banner. It was the only American flag to bear 15 stripes.
For more than a century, the United States flew a flag consisting of 13 stripes, alternating from red to white, with a field of white stars representing each state. The current flag has stood since 1959, when Alaska and Hawaii joined the union.
The ceremony ended with a presentation of two specialized flags. The POW/MIA flag recognizes the plight of those who were prisoners of war or still remain missing in action while the KIA flag honors military members who died in action in service to their nation.
"Our flag is at once a history, a declaration and a prophecy," Ketchum said. "It represents the American nation as it was at its birth, it speaks for what it is today and it holds the opportunity for the future to add other starts to the glorious constellation."
The Stars and Stripes represent the nation's heritage, she added.
"It had been repurchased by each succeeding generation and must be rewon again and again until the end of time," Ketchum said
Sunday's Flag Day observance continued at Carl Miller Park as representatives from American Legion Post 26 and Post 101 held a solemn ceremony to retire more than 850 worn and unserviceable American flags. The ceremony showed the proper way to retire these flags as each was burned in a dignified manner, according to Jack Schafhausen, who served as the sergeant-at-arms during the event.
Jack Schafhausen was accompanied by Madison and Jillian Biggerstaff from Girl Scout Troop 325 in Mountain Home with other local Scouts standing in formation nearby. Each Scout held a worn and torn flag, which were first presented to Post 26 2nd Vice Marian Mitchell.
"Is the present condition of these flags the result of their usual service as the emblem of our country," Mitchell asked the sergeant at arms.
"These flags have become faded and worn over the graves of our departed comrades and the dead soldiers, sailors and airmen of our nation's wars," Schafhausen replied.
Both flags were then presented to Post 26 1st Vice Ralph Binion, who conducted a second inspection while asking if they had served in any other purpose.
The sergeant-at-arms emphasized that both flags had flown at public places during their length of service.
Standing at attention before Post 26 Commander Tom Coester, the Scouts and Schafhausen presented both flags for a final inspection. Concurring with the recommendations of the first and second vice, Coester ordered that both be honorably retired from further service.
"A flag may be a flimsy bit of printed gauze or a beautiful banner of finest silk," Coester said. "Its intrinsic value may be trifling or great, but its real value is beyond price, for it is a precious symbol of all that we and our comrades have worked for and lived for and died for -- a free nation of free men and women, true to the faith of the past, devoted to the ideals and practice of justice, freedom and democracy."
Legion members and others attending the ceremony rendered salutes or placed their hands over their hearts as Matt Nicora played Taps as the first flag was placed in the flames and ignited. The process continued for hours as the other flags were burned in the same manner with the smoke rising into the bright, clear sky until they were all reduced to ashes.
Once the crowd left the park to go home or conduct other business, the duty of the American Legion posts was still incomplete. In a separate observance held out of the public's eye, three Legion representatives buried the ashes of the flags in an undisclosed location known only to them.
It ensures these retired flags will remain undisturbed through the passage of time, Schafhausen emphasized.
The flag retirement ceremony was just one of two Flag Day activities happening at the community park. Tony Sparks and representatives from the 3% of Idaho organization stood along American Legion Boulevard waving American flags and holding banners with passing motorists hoking their horns in support.
The pro-Constitution group was out there that day to remind people in the Mountain Home community about the Flag Day holiday, according to Sparks.