About 30 people gathered at Friendship Cemetery on May 24 to place small, decorative flags at veterans graves in commemoration of Memorial Day.
Days later, veteran Todd Poole said he spent hours fishing between 60 and 100 of the flags out of dumpsters at the cemetery.
“I wasn’t able to attend Memorial Day, but then I come up here, take a look in the dumpster and what do I find? My patriotism,” Poole, who is the outgoing senior vice commander of VFW Post 4272, said in a video posted to Facebook. “That’s my flag. It’s what you sent me overseas to fight for. It’s a symbol we hold dear as a nation. That’s something I don’t appreciate.”
The post quickly sparked discussions about how the flags ended up in the trash and if the city has a protocol for properly disposing of the flags.
Poole said the VFW collects damaged and tattered flags throughout the year, and when it is time to dispose of them, the organization partners with local Boy Scout troops to teach them the right way to do it. Proper protocol includes folding the flag in its customary manner and burning it on a fire while paying respects with a salute, the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence.
The ashes from the fire are then buried, according to the VFW’s disposal protocol.
While the flags placed at graves in Friendship Cemetery are small and decorative, Poole said they are still treated with the same respect as a typical ceremonial flag.
“We retire and respect each and every one of our flags the same way as long as it’s our nation’s flag and our service branches’ flags,” he said. “No matter how large, how small, whether it’s ceremonial or whether it’s an official flag, we treat them all with the same level of respect.”
Seeing flags disposed of with such little care, Poole said, was disheartening to him and other members of the veterans organization.
“It’s a crying shame,” he said. “We go out of our way to do things for our nation’s heroes, but yet, we really don’t take into the full account of traditions that are involved in our rituals, and some of those were ignored.”
As for how the flags ended up in the trash, Poole isn’t sure, but he suspects it likely came from a place of ignorance rather than maliciousness.
“I’ve got a pretty good idea how it happened because those might have been volunteers there trying to assist with the ceremony that really didn’t fully grasp … the gravity of the situation,” he said.
A possible mistake
Rogena Bonner, director for Trotter Convention Center as well as the city’s cemeteries, including Friendship Cemetery, speculated that with so many people attending the Memorial Day ceremony on Saturday, a volunteer may have inadvertently disposed of the flags improperly while trying to be helpful. But without surveillance at the cemetery, she isn’t sure exactly what happened.
“The grounds care group didn’t do it because they’ve been doing this for … close to five years,” she said. “We’ve never had that complaint. I only have two people, and we do not pick up flags. So I can’t tell you who did it because we don’t have cameras there. We have no clue.”
Bonner said the grounds care team for the cemetery has the same method for disposing of flags for years. If there’s a flag that’s on the ground or tattered, it is taken to Columbus Fire and Rescue, where the proper methods of burning the flag are followed.
While Bonner understands the importance of displaying the flags, especially on commemorative holidays, she said she has to take other perspectives under consideration as well.
“As … the person that the city of Columbus has hired to make sure the upkeep of the cemetery takes place, I cannot limit what one group says and not hear from the other group,” she said. “I have to hear from everybody and find a way to make it work for everybody. We have complaints about the flags coming from every direction. We have people complaining that they don’t like them.”
New policies needed?
Despite speculation flags can only be displayed at gravesites for a certain timeframe, Mayor Keith Gaskin told The Dispatch there has never been a mandated deadline for when commemorative flags need to be picked up from the cemetery. But it is something he feels the city needs more defined rules about.
But nailing down what that would look like is hard when everyone has a different idea about how long the small flags should fly.
“I spoke to several veterans (May 24),” Gaskin said. “Some think that a few weeks is fine and then remove (them). Some would like to see them stay up in between all the holidays that they are placed, which would be difficult to do. And then some have differing opinions.
“My suggestion has been that we get representatives from the city and meet with veterans and come up with a plan,” he added. “… I don’t think we’ll ever satisfy everybody, but we want to ensure we are respecting our veterans.”
In the meantime, Bonner said the cemetery will stick with its current policy for properly disposing of flags by taking them to the fire department. She encouraged anyone with questions about how the city operates the cemetery to start by visiting her office.
“If there are any questions about Friendship Cemetery, (they should) start here with the administrative office and let me give them the rules, regulations and guidelines as to how and what needs to happen in Friendship,” she said. “Because when you take to Facebook … and you get people confused, sometimes information that is being given over is not the appropriate information.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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