ASSUMPTION - It's Flag Day, a time for patriots to gather at this crossroads to pay respect to hundreds of Old Glories - and then destroy them.
Tonight, about 600 worn-out Stars and Stripes will go up in smoke here.
Proper and reverent words will be spoken over piles of frayed and faded flags, in an annual sundown ritual at the Catholic War Veterans post.
Then, one by one, each tattered flag will be set aflame and burned to ashes.
“We don't like the phrase `burning the flag.' That has an unpatriotic sound to it. The proper term is to destroy the flag by fire,” said Irv Yoder of Wauseon.
Mr. Yoder will help with the ritual, as will other members of 13 Fulton County veterans' organizations that take part in the ceremony.
The destruction of old flags is conducted by the Fulton County United Veterans. Members are from American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Catholic War Vets, Disabled War Veterans, and Amvets posts.
The veterans have been collecting old flags for a year, as people bring them in, said Terry Estel of Wauseon, an officer in two organizations.
There comes a time in the life of every wind-blown, rain-and-sun-exposed flag when it must be retired, Mr. Estel says. There is a prescribed ceremony for sending Old Glory to glory.
“And it means people aren't flying ratty old flags,” he says.
Mr. Estel is adjutant for the State of Ohio Catholic War Vets, and adjutant of the Wauseon American Legion and Assumption CWV. Mr. Yoder is a past commander of the American Legion and VFW in Wauseon.
Many local veterans' organizations dispose of old flags but Mr. Estel said he knows of no other county in which all groups gather for the flaming of a year's worth of flags.
The ceremony won't be rushed. After 20 minutes of fitting words, the first flag will be set aflame. Then each Old Glory will be separately burned.
“There easily could be 600 flags for us to destroy,” he said. Mr. Yoder said the Wauseon Legion alone has collected “about 200 flags.”
Other groups that collect large numbers of Stars and Stripes are the Swanton posts of VFW and Legion and Delta's Legion post, Mr. Estel said.
First Published June 14, 2001, 2:47 p.m.
