Polo American Legion gives U.S. flags ‘one last mission’

POLO – Unserviceable U.S. flags are getting a second chance to perform one final duty, thanks to the Farewell Flags initiative started at Patrick Fegan American Legion Post No. 83 earlier in 2024.

Farewell Flags provides flags to be draped over the coffins of veterans being cremated. Those flags go to local funeral homes, Legion Post No. 83 Past Commander Cynthia Reynolds said. The flags in question are not the ones seen during a funeral ceremony, which go to the family; these go into the crematory with the veteran, she said.

“The flag is doing one last service,” Reynolds said. “It is protecting the veteran that protected it.”

Reynolds served in the Army from 1993 to 2000 and was the commander of Polo’s American Legion post through this year.

“I just think it’s a wonderful idea,” said Lou Finch IV, a licensed funeral director and owner of Finch Funeral Home in Mt. Morris. “They (veterans) served the country. They should be able to be with the flag.”

Finch’s father, Louis Finch III, served in the U.S. Army. His son, Ryker Finch, is a senior airman in the U.S. Air Force.

“The veterans, whatever they should be able to receive, they should receive it,” Finch said. “They served under the flag. They served for us. They served for the country.”

Farewell Flags are selected from the flags left at the flag drop in the Barber building at 101 W. Mason St., Polo, on the side along Franklin Avenue. All flags are deposited securely within the building, which Reynolds and her husband own.

Cotton flags they receive will be burned in periodic official flag-burning ceremonies, Reynolds said. The others will be provided to local funeral homes participating in the Farewell Flags program, she said. Burning the flags outside could pollute the air depending on their material.

“The (U.S.) flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning,” according to the U.S. Code Title 4.

The American Legion established a specific ceremony for the disposal of unserviceable U.S. flags in 1937.

A flag is considered unserviceable when it is frayed, ripped or torn, Reynolds said.

“The funeral homes can use them in any condition because they’re not going to be seen and (they can be) any material,” she said. “The crematories, because they’re self-contained, they have no problem burning it.”

The Farewell Flags program came out of a discussion Reynolds had with Kevin Smoot, a member of the Polo Historical Society, regarding how to place U.S. flags at veterans’ graves in Fairmount Cemetery for Memorial Day.

Smoot mentioned a funeral home in Iowa that repurposes old flags by using them during the cremation process, Reynolds said. She contacted the funeral director, who told her the practice was part of a program that required membership, training and licensing.

They considered mailing the flags that would work to Iowa, but it was too expensive, Reynolds said. So she figured, “Why not start something here?”

They could get the ball rolling and, once local funeral homes picked it up, they could become part of the larger network, Reynolds said.

“The idea was there, just not among outlying communities,” she said. “I thought, ‘This is too good to keep to a small number.’”

Farewell Flags are near and dear to Reynolds’ heart after having unexpectedly lost her father, Friedrich Grumbach, in November 2020. Grumbach was in the U.S. Army as military police and served in the Vietnam War.

“I hope it gets picked up because it’s a perfect way to dispose of (unserviceable flags),” Reynolds said. “It gives it one last assignment, one last mission.”

For information about the Farewell Flags program, contact the Polo American Legion or email Reynolds directly at cagr71d@att.net.