Flag Day set aside to teach etiquette

People driving down U.S. 231 sometimes pull in to Select Trailer Company just to look at, or take a photo of, the massive 20-foot by 38-foot U.S. flag which flies on a 70-foot pole outside.

Sometimes they even come inside to shake Richard Smith's hand and thank him for the display, he said.

Smith said that because his business deals with "a lot of really patriotic people", they decided to place a flag on the property.

Various members of the staff are either veterans or somehow connected to the military, and they decided to show their patriotism in a big way.

"If we're going to do it," Smith said, "let's do it right."

The U.S. will observe Flag Day on Saturday, a day to honor America's most precious symbol, and to learn about the proper etiquette for displaying and handling it.

There's more to flying a flag than meets the eye. Select Trailer owns three of the large flags -- one for display, one for reserve, and one that has been sent to a seamstress to be hemmed and repaired.

"They take a heck of a beating up there on that flagpole," he said.

One of the flags is loaned each year during the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration to local Boy Scouts, who unfurl it on the infield during the patriotic celebration which opens one night's show.

It is also Boy Scouts -- Troop 370, led by Franklin and Keith Smith -- whom Smith entrusts to dispose of the flags respectfully when they have outlived their proper appearance.

The U.S. Air Force Honor Guard at Arnold Engineering Development Center also holds flag retirement ceremonies, according to an AEDC news release.

One of the honor guard's duties is to destroy unserviceable flags in a respectful and dignified manner. Community members, Boy Scouts and schools turn in faded, torn and damaged flags to the honor guard throughout the year to be retired in this manner.

Tech Sgt. John Bankston said it is important to the ceremony that no recognizable remnants of the flag remain after it is ceremonially burned.

The ceremonies are held at Camp Arrowhead, a Boy Scout facility near Woods Reservoir on the Arnold Air Force Base reservation.

Any individual or organization wanting to retire a U.S. flag may contact Bankston at (931) 454-5173.

But some people and organizations don't have a flag to begin with. Bedford County Veterans Service Officer Gordon Warren said that veterans' groups are happy to provide flags for public institutions who need them, and even give flags to individuals sometimes.

The groups also have provided small hand-held plastic flags to organizations like Bedford County Arts Council and South Side School, and provides them each year to the Boy Scouts to be handed out at the Veterans' Day Parade.

"People need to display the flag on Flag Day," said Warren.

TO LEARN MORE

Information about proper display of the flag is available at usflag.org/flagetiquette.html