"Hundreds of thousands of men and women gave their lives for this flag. To see it in the garbage breaks my heart," Sikora said. "This was to try (to) help the boys understand why, as my father-in-law put it, people would die for the flag, that it is more than a piece of cloth."

Fourteen scouts from the Washington Township troop participated in the retirement ceremony, held yesterday behind the Washington Township firehouse. All but one or two of Troop 79's members attended, said troop guide Chris Pankiewicz.

The troop had sought out flags ready for retirement, gathering two of the troop's own flags, two from the township, others brought in by troop members.

The highest ranking scouts in the troop, senior patrol leader Brad Wham and Pankiewicz, both Life Scouts, took turns cutting up the largest of the old flags, first cutting off the blue field representing the union of 50 states, then cutting off each stripe, starting from the top.

As each piece was removed, a scout recited a famous line from American history, ranging from parts of the Bill of Rights to Neil Armstrong's first words as he stepped on the surface of the moon: "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

After all of the pieces were separated and the lines recited, the scouts pledged allegiance to the flag. Then all the pieces were placed on the fire, which was contained in an old oil drum.

The scouts then watched over the fire until the flags were completely burned. The ashes were buried behind the firehouse.

The scouts sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "My Country 'Tis of Thee" to begin and end the ceremony.

Sikora said there were many variations of the flag retirement ceremony. In some, each star in the blue field is removed, symbolizing each state's equality. In others, like this one, the stars are left together to symbolize state unity.

Not every retirement ceremony cuts the flag into pieces, but according to the information the scouts gathered from the Internet, "a flag ceases to be a flag when it is cut into pieces," thus avoiding negative symbolism of burning a flag in protest.

"It's a little different," Wham said. "Usually they don't cut the flag, but I like it - our scoutmaster said we would get more out of it."

"I was a little disappointed with the turnout," said Pankiewicz, because only the scouts and scout leaders attended, along with a few relatives. "We want to make this an annual event and get more people to come next year."

Pankiewicz and Sikora said that efforts to advertise the event had been unsuccessful.

Sikora said he picked yesterday as a day to hold the ceremony more out of convenience than for any symbolic reason. It was more important, he said, to make sure most of the scouts would be able to attend.

"It's a crazy time of the year with vacations," he said. "It's not the Fourth of July, but it's close enough."