Flag Retirement Program

About the Program

We are collecting worn, tattered or torn American flags and will use our facilities to provide a respectful retirement. Our “Flag Retirement Program” is another way we support our community by helping families whose loved ones have served our country.

Most people are not sure of what to do with a flag that has seen better days. Some continue to fly their aged flag or have purchased a new flag while holding onto their old one. We are collecting those worn, tattered or torn American flags that are no longer suitable for display and are no longer fit to serve the nation.

At the time of a veteran’s death whose family has chosen cremation, permission will be sought to drape that veteran with an unusable flag. This allows for the retirement of a flag in a most dignified manner and honors both the veteran’s service to their country and the American Flag. Upon receipt of the cremated remains of their veteran, acknowledgement shall be expressed stating the last deed of service for that flag, which was to drape their veteran in the cremation process.

This commemorative measure honors those Americans who have served to promote peace for fellow countrymen living under the high flying flag… in the land they love… the home of the free and the brave.

Sullivan Funeral Care & Crematory is proud to the first in the area to offer such a dignified tribute to both the flag and a deserving veteran.

Meet our U.S. Flag

On June 14, 1777, the United States Congress resolved “that the Flag of the United States be 13 stripes alternate red and white, that the Union be 13 stars, white in a blue field representing a new Constellation”. After this was passed, our Flag looked different each time a new State joined the Union because a new stripe was added. The Flag soon required very tall flag poles, so on April 4, 1818, Congress enacted: “that from the fourth day of July next, the Flag of the United States be 13 horizontal stripes, alternate red and white, that the Union be 20 stars, white in a blue field, that on the admission of every new State into the Union, one star be added to the Union of the Flag…” As states were admitted the position of the Stars were changed so that today we have stars in nine rows: five rows with six stars and four rows with five stars.

Our Flag Retirement Brochure

Flag Retirement Brochure

Click on the graphic on the left to download the file.

The United States Flag Code, Title 4, Section 8k

“The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem of display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.”

“The Gift Outright”

The land was ours before we were the land’s She was our land more than a hundred years Before we were her people. She was ours, in Massachusetts, in Virginia. But we were England’s, still colonials, Possessing what we still were unpossessed by, Possessed by what we now no more possessed. Something we were withholding made us weak. Until we found that it was ourselves We were withholding from our land of living, And forthwith found salvation in surrender. Such as we were we gave ourselves outright (The deed of gift was many deeds of war) To the land vaguely realizing westward, But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced, Such as she was, such as she would become.

Robert Frost; 1874-1963

A year of daily grief support

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Family Owned & Locally Operated by Wesley & Donna Cole