HARLINGEN — Bryan Streiff has always had a “strong sense of patriotism.”
He attributes that — in large part — to his 91-year-old grandfather, a World War II veteran.
“I’ve been really close to him for as long as I can remember,” Bryan said.
“Every time I go to his house, we talk about history and he’d teach me how to be respectful.”
The 17-year-old Marine Military Academy cadet is on a mission to help spread patriotism. As part of that, he recently completed constructing a wooden drop box to be used as a retirement receptacle for old and tattered American flags.
It was his project to earn his Eagle Scout leadership rank.
“Most people keep old American flags in plastic bags until they’re ready to be retired. But I think this is a more respectful way to hold them,” Bryan said.
“Almost anywhere you go in the country, it’s hard to find a flag receptacle. There’s a need for this.”
Bryan was home schooled and says he has lived in 12 places. While he was living in Nevada City, California, he found that many people were not as patriotic “as I’d like them to be, especially toward the flag.”
He doesn’t think it’s intentional.
“I think they just don’t realize what the flag means. There isn’t a part of the American flag that doesn’t have some kind of meaning behind it. For example, the red stripes symbolize the blood that has been shed for our country,” he said.
“I just think my generation has not been taught proper respect and that kind of makes me upset to know that.”
But he believes he has helped to turn his friends around, just by talking about politics.
“Everywhere I’ve gone, I tend to be the more conservative out of all my friends — and patriotic,” he said.
“But I’ve kind of changed my friends into super patriotic people by the time I left. We’d always get on the subject of politics and I’d tell them what’s right.”
The flag receptacle will be kept at MMA. Once the box becomes full, MMA will perform the proper flag retirement ceremony.
After he graduates from MMA, Bryan plans to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps and then study political science at the University of Oregon.
Asked whether he is contemplating elective office, he says, “I’d like to — probably on the local level.”
And of course, he would be the conservative on the ballot.
Flag retirement ceremony
When the United States flag becomes worn, torn, faded or badly soiled, it is time to replace it with a new flag, and the old flag should be “retired” with all the dignity and respect befitting our nation’s flag.
The traditional method of retirement is to incinerate the flag, but this does not mean that one should simply drop the entire flag intact into a fire.
The corners of the flag are stretched out over a table top and the flag is cut in half, vertically. The two halves are placed together and cut in half, horizontally.
You will end up with four pieces of flag, one being the blue star field.
While the Scouts are performing the flag dissection, other Scouts start and tend a medium size, wood fire, preferably in a metal drum or incinerator.
Once the flag remnants and fire are ready, the following ceremony is performed:
The Scouts maintain a vigil over the fire until all traces of the flag remnants are destroyed. Then, the fire is extinguished and the ashes are buried. The burial can be completed with a moment of silence while Taps is played by a bugler.
Source: U.S. Scouting Service Project
