Latest / Brian Thomas / CCVS Steve Balczo - Flag Retirement / Flag Day

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CCVS Steve Balczo - Flag Retirement / Flag Day · Brian Thomas

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Speaker 1: Be the talk station.
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Speaker 2: Fifty five KERCD talk Station or their Happy Wednesday to
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Speaker 2: you in studio, the return of Claimont County Veteran Service
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Speaker 2: Commission Steve Belzo, who's got to be talking about Flag Day,
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Speaker 2: Steve Bells. It's always great having you in the studio.
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Speaker 2: And I see that. I guess Ken Williamson handed off
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Speaker 2: the flag retirement ceremony announcement to you, and that's aoka.
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Speaker 2: It's at Union Township Civic Amphitheater on this Saturday, June sixth,
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Speaker 2: one pm along with the Boy Scout Troop four fifty two.
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Speaker 2: I've been doing this for years. They've always invited me over.
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Speaker 3: Yesh.
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Speaker 2: It is such a I wish it was more well attendant,
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Speaker 2: and that's one of the reasons you're here to talk
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Speaker 2: about it. But it's just such a neat ceremony. You
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Speaker 2: learn about the having respect for the flag, and it
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Speaker 2: was a Steve tam is just a beautiful guy. I mean,
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Speaker 2: he's gonna kick this thing off. He would drive around
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Speaker 2: and if he saw a tattered flag one should have
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Speaker 2: been retired in a home or a business, he pulled
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Speaker 2: right on over and just knock on the door and
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Speaker 2: say hey, Hey, it's time to get that flag down.
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Speaker 2: You know, if you don't have one, I'll give you one.
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Speaker 3: I have commissioners that carry them in their vehicles and
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Speaker 3: they'll stop and just change them out. I think that's right,
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Speaker 3: that's great exactly. But it's part of the patriotic bone.
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Speaker 2: It is, you know, the symbol of our country. It is,
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Speaker 2: you know, and I always feel so proud of what
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Speaker 2: it represents. And to me, I always boil it down. Freedom.
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Speaker 2: I mean, it's one thing I truly believe in his freedom.
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Speaker 2: You have your own version of what you perceive freedom
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Speaker 2: to be. You can be your own person in the
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Speaker 2: United States of America. You worship whatever religion you want.
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Speaker 2: You can speak your mind with our free speech freedom.
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Speaker 2: There's no other country in the world.
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Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you, being around this world many times,
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Speaker 3: there are few symbols that are globally recognized, and our
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Speaker 3: American flag is one of them.
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Speaker 1: Amen.
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Speaker 2: And so many people trying to tear it down and
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Speaker 2: turn it into something that it's not a symbol of,
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Speaker 2: you know, anger, division, you know, evil and stopping on it.
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Speaker 2: And you know, I don't want a loss thing. You
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Speaker 2: can't burn it up because that's part of freedom and speech.
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Speaker 2: But you know what, I have such a profound level
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Speaker 2: of respect. It always breaks my heart to see that
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Speaker 2: people would do that.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, man, desecrating the flag.
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Speaker 3: You're yeah, there wasn't a band aid you pulled off.
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Speaker 3: I having to have an arm removed there where the
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Speaker 3: band aid says. But nonetheless, it's one of those the
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Speaker 3: somber event to retire and dispose of a flag. It
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Speaker 3: is discreet, It is not a celebration. No, it is
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Speaker 3: meant to be honored the way we would a loved
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Speaker 3: one in a cemetery.
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Speaker 2: Exactly. That's what it's all about. Yes, sir, there is
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Speaker 2: a way to properly dispose of a flag when it's
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Speaker 2: end of its useful life. You're supposed to celebrate it
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Speaker 2: and honor it by placing it in you know. And
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Speaker 2: we'll walk through all of the steps on Saturday and
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Speaker 2: how that's properly done. But it is an event much
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Speaker 2: like a funeral.
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Speaker 3: Because we live in this What it resents the democracy
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Speaker 3: of this nation. However, you look at our democracy, we
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Speaker 3: are still the most democratic, fair based country on the
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Speaker 3: face of this earth.
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Speaker 2: A man or with Steve Belzo, we'll talk about the
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Speaker 2: flag Retirement Ceremony after these brief Ford USA insulation and
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Speaker 2: taking the name in a patriotic way USA Premium Foam
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Speaker 2: in the xtree walls vire seven forty eight, seven forty
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Speaker 2: nine actually fifty one kerc DEE talk Station. Flag Retirement
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Speaker 2: Ceremony this Saturday, one pm be at the Union Township
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Speaker 2: Civic Center Amphitheater. First eighteen people who show up and
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Speaker 2: bring a flag that needs to be retired are going
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Speaker 2: to receive a brand new and four free three foot
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Speaker 2: by five foot flag at the end of the ceremony
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Speaker 2: because you need to take down your old tattter flag.
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Speaker 2: They call them unserviceable and they need to be retired.
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Speaker 2: Steve Belzo, Clement County Veteran Services. Before we get to
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Speaker 2: the reason for Flag Day and what it is unserviceable,
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Speaker 2: what does it mean to be unserviceable? I mean there's
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Speaker 2: degrees of flag age out there in the world. When
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Speaker 2: at what point would Steve Tams start knocking on your
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Speaker 2: door and telling you to get the thing down and properly,
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Speaker 2: properly retire it.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, there is a I don't want to say
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Speaker 3: a militaristic, draconian look at the flag. But yet there is, right,
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Speaker 3: so unserviceable.
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Speaker 1: Does the flag without.
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Speaker 3: Rip or tear look exceedingly weathered? Are the colors faded?
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Speaker 3: It's time to replace the flag. Aside from that, as
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Speaker 3: soon as the flag starts to tearing, right and you've
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Speaker 3: got these frayed ends flying off, or how many have
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Speaker 3: we seen driving down a road that there's like thirteen
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Speaker 3: streamers because of flags coming apart, it's like, bring the
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Speaker 3: thing down. And that's when it's unserviceable is when it
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Speaker 3: does not look new anymore. Basically, right, it's starting to tear.
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Speaker 3: Their weather rised, right, they're made out of a nylon
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Speaker 3: now that they're supposed to take the higher winds and
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Speaker 3: the rain. But after about two years the sun degrad
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Speaker 3: anything that it had for some sort of construction that
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Speaker 3: it just starts to come apart.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, or sooner. In the case, we fly our flag
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Speaker 2: every single day at the Thomas Household in the sun
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Speaker 2: and sometimes the rain. I know you're supposed to be
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Speaker 2: taking them down at appropriate times and not fly them
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Speaker 2: at night unless they're illuminated too.
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Speaker 1: Oh, thank you very much, chi Ching Brian, got it.
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Speaker 1: I know the rules.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, know why because I've been doing the flag retirement
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Speaker 2: ceremony for a long years.
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Speaker 1: I've got boy Scouts in my head.
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Speaker 2: I got it down. At least go back to what
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Speaker 2: is Flag Day and what is the history behind flag days?
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Speaker 3: Deep?
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Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh, flag Day.
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Speaker 3: It is from seventeen seventy seven. I mean, if you
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Speaker 3: can think about seventeen seventy seven and the recognition of
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Speaker 3: our American flag extends all the way back to then,
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Speaker 3: of just the liberty, if you can put yourself in
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Speaker 3: the revolutionary soldiers and community members of this new nation
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Speaker 3: and what that flag represented to them. Oh yeah, right, yeah,
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Speaker 3: today we're taking it for granted. But let's go back
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Speaker 3: to the beginning and what did it mean to those
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Speaker 3: beginning settlers to have their first flag approved by the
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Speaker 3: Second Continental Congress, the thirteen red and white stripes, the
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Speaker 3: blue field, and the thirteen circling stars.
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Speaker 2: And still within memory of the Revolutionary War which brought
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Speaker 2: about the creation of the flag.
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Speaker 3: In seventeen seventy seven, the war still going on. Well,
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Speaker 3: valid point on that right, seventy six we wrote the independence, Well,
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Speaker 3: what didn't mean we were independent? We were still fighting
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Speaker 3: for it until seventy eight.
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Speaker 2: Valid point.
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Speaker 3: So there's to raise old Glory, then Young Glory in
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Speaker 3: seventeen seventy seven. That was a rallying cry. Right, when
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Speaker 3: you bring a country together behind a single symbol like that,
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Speaker 3: it's huge.
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Speaker 2: Well, going back, and you said, I hit the nail
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Speaker 2: on the head about taking the flag down a night
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Speaker 2: unless it's illuminated. But are there other rules for flying
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Speaker 2: a flag outside?
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Speaker 1: There is when when.
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Speaker 3: The United States flag should never touch the ground, right
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Speaker 3: that I know. So when you see people bringing a
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Speaker 3: flag down, it is meant to be caught at the
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Speaker 3: bottom and not be draped on the ground until you
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Speaker 3: can unhook it from the morning points. Secondly, some people
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Speaker 3: pull it down and then they there's a proper folding
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Speaker 3: technique to retire it for the evening. So flying it outside,
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Speaker 3: it should never be so large that it's hitting the ground.
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Speaker 3: It should be illuminated from sunset till sunrise, or take
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Speaker 3: it down at night. There's so many automatic battery charged
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Speaker 3: lights that are out there now that.
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Speaker 1: Are solar powered.
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Speaker 3: It's so easy to just have a spotlight on the
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Speaker 3: flag if it's inconvenient at sunrise or sundown. Even the
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Speaker 3: branches don't agree when we raise colors or retire them
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Speaker 3: in the evening. The Marine Corps in the Army do
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Speaker 3: it at different times.
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Speaker 2: Is that right?
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Speaker 1: It is?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so the Rine Corps does it, but we take
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Speaker 3: it down at sunset. I think the Army does it
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Speaker 3: at sunrise and takes it down at like seventeen hundred. Right,
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Speaker 3: So you guys fight about right, Oh, absolutely, it's no
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Speaker 3: different than you and your brothers.
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Speaker 2: Right.
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Speaker 3: No, Mom had two left feet. No, it was that, right,
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Speaker 3: So it's it's the same type of thing. But yet
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Speaker 3: it's it's a it's a good argument over how do
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Speaker 3: we respect this thing and the fact that we are
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Speaker 3: respecting our flag. So there's a certain premers that come
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Speaker 3: into flying the flag respectively outside and then it should
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Speaker 3: always be at the utmost highest peak if you're flying
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Speaker 3: it with other flags, if another flag pole is next
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Speaker 3: to it, the American flag should be at the right.
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Speaker 3: Now who's perspective? Now, if it's the homeowner, the flag
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Speaker 3: should be on the right and the other state or
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Speaker 3: federal flag should be on the left. But if I'm
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Speaker 3: at a church and I walk in and I see
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Speaker 3: a church flag and I see the American flag, well
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Speaker 3: where do they go?
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Speaker 1: Which side? Do I wear them on? Or do I
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Speaker 1: post them on.
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Speaker 3: Well, if it's on the stage with the pastor, the
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Speaker 3: American flag is to the pastor's right, the church flag
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Speaker 3: is to his left.
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Speaker 1: But if they're forward of the.
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Speaker 3: Pastor, the colors now represent the congregation. And now I
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Speaker 3: have to flip the flags that the American flags to
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Speaker 3: the right and the church flag is on.
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Speaker 2: The left to start writing things down.
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Speaker 3: But this is to give a proper respect of who
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Speaker 3: it is representing as a group. So as a pastor
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Speaker 3: on the stage supporting the pastor and the church. The
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Speaker 3: only time a flag flies higher than the American flag
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Speaker 3: is during church services aboard a naval vessel.
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Speaker 2: Okay, And how does that have a How do they
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Speaker 2: come about with that different rule?
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Speaker 1: That is a great question when you don't ask the navy.
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Speaker 2: And then here's the swirling question, and maybe a little
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Speaker 2: too lead dwelling for the purposes of this general discussion
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Speaker 2: about just having respect for the flag. When do you
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Speaker 2: fly it at half mass? My wife and I be
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Speaker 2: driving around in the big flag at half mass. I'm like, well,
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Speaker 2: maybe somebody in the business that the business owner died,
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Speaker 2: or someone within the business, because not all the flags
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Speaker 2: are being flown at half mass. Is there some general
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Speaker 2: set of rules for that.
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Speaker 1: So there's both federal and state.
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Speaker 3: So the state can ask, right that everybody fly their
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Speaker 3: flag at half mass. A state senator passes, the former
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Speaker 3: governor passes, it's typically someone of previous prominence within the state,
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Speaker 3: right that the governor wants to recognize. Maybe it was
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Speaker 3: a state trooper that was killed over a rodent center
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Speaker 3: or something. Right, And so they'll half mast a flag.
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Speaker 3: And business owners who are flying the American flag, and
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Speaker 3: we see large construction companies just have like TQL has
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Speaker 3: just mammos. We call it a holiday flag. That's the
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Speaker 3: size of a flag they're flying. Right, So you would
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Speaker 3: monitor a state website to know when to half mass.
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Speaker 3: The state's not going to publish to everybody. Oh, by
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Speaker 3: the way, Joey Johnson down on this roll, did you
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Speaker 3: know if you have a flag? Right, But the state
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Speaker 3: has a website that you can go to to view
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Speaker 3: their directions over flying half mass. And then federally, we
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Speaker 3: know the federal holidays. And a US senator passes, a
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Speaker 3: former president passes, there will be a proclamation to fly
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Speaker 3: the flags at half mass for a determined amount of period.
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Speaker 2: All right, All that makes sense to me. I'm still
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Speaker 2: confused about the whole pastor situation in the church, but
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Speaker 2: you know, I'm not going to be responsible for that
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Speaker 2: decision making. Just fly a flag, respect it, take care
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Speaker 2: of it, retire it when it's appropriate. And I think
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Speaker 2: any casual observer could look at a flag and know,
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Speaker 2: one way or another whether it's ready to retire, and
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Speaker 2: if it is, bring it to the flag retirement ceremony.
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Speaker 2: Union Townships