Veterans gave Ol’ Glory a fitting retirement on Flag Day.

The Keith Lowry-Henry Ellyson Post 5 of the American Legion on Saturday evening dedicated a new plaza for the United States flag to fly high and also ceremoniously destroyed several others that had served their time.

“The 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,” read Post 5 Commander Mark Kirchner from the U.S. Flag Code as the sun set behind him at Newfield Community Park.

Kirchner and his fellow Post 5 members held the ceremony in hopes of making it an annual tradition.

The flag plaza, which sits directly east of the band shell at the park, was a joint project of Post 5, the City of Kingfisher, Kingfisher Trails, Walmart and the Bert and Willie Jones family, which includes daughters Gwen, Gene, Madell, Madeline and Lavenia.

The city was represented at the ceremony by City Manager Jim Thomas. On hand for Kingfisher Trails was Brian Walter, who addressed the crowd and also provided a closing prayer.

Post 5 members Scott Campbell and Roger Freels raised the new flag at the plaza.

Afterward, several flags were properly disposed of by Post 5 members and others who attended.

The American Legion has a flag collection center outside of its headquarters at 117 W. Miles Ave.

As the flags were prepared to be burned, Kirchner read these words: “We have presented here these flags of our country which have been inspected and judged as unserviceable. They have reached their present state in a proper service of tribute, memory and love.

“A flag may be a flimsy bit of printed gauze or a beautiful banner of finest silk. Its intrinsic value may be trifling or great; but its real value is beyond price, for it is a precious symbol of all that we have worked for and lived for and died for – a free nation of free men and women, true to the faith of the past, devoted to the ideals and practice of justice, freedom and democracy.

“Let these faded flags of our country be retired and destroyed with respectful and honorable rites and their places be taken by bright new flags of the same size and kind and let no grave of our military dead be unhonored and unmarked.”

( Ed. note: See more photos from the ceremony on the Kingfisher Times & Free Press Facebook page.)