Student veterans group to retire flags

0311.FLAG CEREMONY 1.jpg [1]

By PAUL SIMS
sdnnews@bellsouth.net [2]

When a flag no longer holds its intended colors, or is tattered, and basically worn out, there’s a proper way to retire it.
Mississippi State University Student Veterans Association members plan a formal flag retirement ceremony at dark March 21 in the North Farm Rose Garden, said MSU SVA president Lewis Howard, a junior aerospace engineering major from Meridian. The Rose Garden is located off Highway 182.
MSU SVA vice president Lindsay Bullock is a biochemistry graduate student from Ripley who also works part-time on weekends at Tupelo Buffalo Park. A barbeque will proceed the ceremony beginning at 5:30 p.m.
Staff there had some flags for about two years didn’t know what to do with them.
So she asked Brittany Wilemon, a senior biochemistry major from Belmont and the SVA’s outreach coordinator, if the SVA knew of anyone who took care of flags in need of retirement.
“We researched it,” found out how it works and decided to hold their own ceremony, Bullock said.
The public can participate two ways.
They can drop off retirement-condition flags at the G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery Center for America’s Veterans on the MSU campus at 126 McGruder St. The other way is to bring a flag to the ceremony.
Organizers will accept any official flag in need of retirement. This includes such flags as those for the U.S., states, POW-MIA and military branches.
One flag will be burned ceremonially, then others will be added to the fire, Bullock said.
For directions to the center, call the Center for America’s Veterans at 325-6719. For information on the ceremony, call Lewis Howard at (601) 595-1044.