On Friday, Feb. 11, a group of students in the NJROTC (Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps) program went to the Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery for a flag retirement ceremony. The purpose of the flag retirement ceremony is to take flags that are too worn to be flying, or unserviceable, and respectfully dispose of them, as they symbolize many things to the people who have fought for them.

The students that participated in leading the ceremony included the Cadet Master Chief Petty Officer, Henry Stanley and the Cadet Battalion Executive Officer, Hannah Leclear. The color guard carrying the colors was commanded by Benjamin Edgecomb. The rest of the color guard consisted of Briana Almeida, Leland Guy and Jon Paul Urtado. In charge of the American flag was the varsity boys color guard: Loreto Tobias, Allan Ramirez, Jacob Cisneros and Izmael Granados. In charge of the Texas flag was the varsity girls color guard: Izabella Perez, Estrella Reyna, Hannah Holbrooks and Kyra Volkman. Guadalupe Armijo-Cruz helped hold the American and Texas flag during the ceremony. Thomas Korsmo played taps on the bugle.

The American flag was discarded first. The blue “field” was cut off of the flag first and held by a member of the color guard. After that, the “cutter”, or the person with the scissors, cut the 13 stripes off, one by one, starting from the top of the flag. After the stripes were placed into the bonfire, the blue field was burned last.

After this, the cutting of the Texas flag began. First, the star was cut out of the flag and held by a member of the color guard. Then, the blue field of the flag is cut off, then the white, then the red. The star is burned last.

After the ceremony, the NJROTC instructors continued to dispose of the worn flags. They also brought extra flags to replace the worn ones. 

“It was a fairly rare event for most people to experience. As a school extracurricular group, we were pretty lucky they asked for us to come out.” said junior Estrella Reyna.