So I said I was going to tell you what I did for Veteran's day/Marine Corps Birthday. . . I am a den leader for my elder son's Cub Scout Den and at one time this year I was the De facto leader of the whole pack. (We have since gotten a new Cub Master.) Anyway, I planned a pack camp out with the Girl scout troop at our school and had a bunch of activities planned. Two of the activities were a Marine Corps birthday celebration and a flag retirement. Both went very well and the families were all very impressed. I did a Cub Scout version of the USMC birthday with a cake with the Marine Corps Emblem, cut it with my sword, acknowledged the oldest and youngest Cub Scout (normally the oldest and youngest Marine, of course), and read Lejeune's USMC Birthday message. The flag we retired was one of those big ones that they use at car dealerships. As prep-work, we cut the flag in quarters (along the union) and then cut apart the stripes. During the ceremony, we had the first 8 kids come through had a line to read about the flag or patriotism and put their stripe in the fire. Finally, the union was put in the fire by me and the man who owns the property (it was a big flag!) It was a great evening.
The following pictures are from our Colors ceremony Sunday morning. I played To the Colors on my trombone.