HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) - Anyone with a flag no longer fit to display can take it to Parkview Cemetery for retirement thanks to Brayden Lockling.
Lockling, an 18-year-old Hastings High School senior, recently put the finishing touches on a flag retirement box near the cemetery entrance as part of an Eagle Scout project. Fellow Troop 207 members aided his endeavor.
“I wanted to get this out, so that people would have a place to bring them, so that they wouldn’t hold onto them forever,” he told the Hastings Tribune.
People have brought old flags to Lockling’s parents because of the family’s involvement in Boy Scouts of America.
“I’ve heard from other people that they’ve been given flags if they are a part of Scouts,” he said. “So I made a box so that people could just bring them here.”
It was important to Lockling to respect the country and veterans by providing this flag retirement option.
“I know most people don’t, they don’t know how to properly retire them or they don’t properly retire them, so having a place they can bring them and get them properly retired in respect of our soldiers, country and America and do it the right way (is important),” Lockling said.
He researched flag retirement box designs.
“Based on what other people were doing, we just created our own thing, put it all together and it worked out pretty nice,” he said.
Lockling’s project was about six months in the making.
He communicated with Cemetery Superintendent John Brown.
“He said he would like the box here, so we got everything organized with him,” he said. “We found a place he liked, I liked it. So we made it happen.”
Lockling stained the wood used to make the box a few weeks ago.
He poured the concrete pad for the box recently.
“I think it looks good; I think it will be a good place,” he said.
The wooden box itself is quite substantial.
“We tried to put every factor into it like weather, water all that,” he said.
Lockling said he took the cemetery sprinklers into consideration.
“It should be in the right spot where it’s not going to be drenched by sprinklers,” he said.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.