Freedom is not Free. You have to pay the price for your liberty. Freedom is a word you often hear today, but if you want to keep it, there is a price to pay. Each generation has to win it anew because it is not something handed to you. The words (excerpt from Flag Burning Ceremony) spoken to Boys Home by Commander Shawn Wright as Curtis A Smith VFW Post 1033 presented the Flag Burning Ceremony.
Bill Atherholt, Post Quartermaster, and Louis Surratt, Special Projects and Trade Teacher at Boys Home, demonstrated the proper way to fold the flag. The flag that was folded and burned belonged to Surratt and he took it everywhere he went for 20 years. Surratt was in the Air Force for four years and then spent twenty years in the Navy Reserve. Surratt said “Every generation has stepped up to do their part”.
It is prescribed that a flag, to be retired from service, be burned by fire, to return to ashes, to be returned to the dust from which she was made, and that a new flag fly, to once again demonstrate the strenghth of our great nation. This is to be accomplished in a simple, dignified manner, in a private group rather than a public display.
Boys Home staff members Anita Profit, Community Service Coordinator and Kenny Bess, Program Director, were in attendance. We thank them for the opportunity to reach out to the younger generation to educate them on this ceremony.
Boys Home had a Medal of Honor recipient from their family — Corporal Michael Folland, United States Army, was killed while serving in Vietnam on July 3, 1969. We thank him for his service and sacrifice to our country. We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge two other Medal of Honor winners from our area. 1st Lt Gary Miller, United States Army, was killed February 2, 1969 while serving in Vietnam. 1st Lt. Jimmie Monteith, Jr., was killed during World War II June 6, 1944 on D-Day in Normandy . He is buried at Normandy American Cemetary.
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