Oak Harbor American Legion George Morris Post No. hosted a district meeting and flag disposal Saturday, April 6. Participating posts included those from Bellingham, Lummi Island, Bow, South Whidbey, Anacortes, Friday Harbor, Blaine, Ferndale and Mountlake Terrace. Prior to the meeting, a flag disposal ceremony was held. Legion and Auxiliary members gathered outdoors to watch Oak Harbor High School’s Naval Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps assist local legion and district officials in presenting folded flags for inspection, certifying the flags as unserviceable and depositing the flags for burning.

George Morris Post Commander Walt Yates said, “People heard about the disposal ceremony and sent flags from all over the state. We got bags and bags.”

Before the ceremony began, Phyllis Quinn, unit chaplain for George Morris Post’s auxiliary, said,”I’ve been to one other disposal ceremony and cried all the way through it. It’s so sentimental.”

As NJROTC color guard members posted the colors and touched folded flags with gloved hands, legion members stood at attention and saluted.

District members conducting the disposal ceremony spoke of the different uses of the flags: flown at national sites and schools; covering coffins of fallen service members and rallying troops in battle.

After the ceremony, Quinn said she didn’t cry, “I was too busy taking pictures.” However, Quinn admitted that, “I did get teary once or twice.”

Taking a break between the flag ceremony and posting the colors at the district meeting, NJROTC members Patrick Usery, Josh Tope, Jamie Memmer and Amy Hickinbotham discussed their part in the day. The students didn’t mind spending a good part of their Saturday in uniform. “We wouldn’t want to be any other place,” Hickinbotham said.