Honoring Old Glory

The son of a career military man, 12-year-old Matthew Miller has traveled all over the country – and parts of the world. One constant he’s noticed throughout all those stops: the U.S. flag flying over military installations.

That image was the inspiration for Miller’s Eagle Scout project. The seventh-grader set a goal of properly retiring 100 U.S. flags. But when word got out of his project – and The American Legion Department of Alabama got involved – that goal was blown out of the water.

In early April, Miller – with the help of five members of the Pike Road (Ala.) Volunteer Fire Department and two grills provided by the City of Montgomery – retired 679 American flags and 52 State of Alabama flags during a ceremony at St. James United Methodist Church.

Miller’s father, Lt. Col. David Miller, is studying at Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base and soon will be promoted to colonel. The site of the U.S. flag at his dad’s various career stops stuck with Matthew.

“My dad’s been in the military, so I’ve been to a lot of different places where I’ve seen the American flag flying,” Matthew said. “The American flag serves our country just like a veteran does.”

Matthew, a member of Pike Road’s Scout Troop 8, contacted Department of Alabama Adjutant Greg Akers to let him know about the need for flags. Akers put the word out, and the flags rolled in, coming from the Legion, the City of Montgomery, government agencies, churches and individuals.

“We got flags from people who had been hanging onto them for five, 10 years,” Akers said. “We got them from government agencies, organizations, businesses, everyone.”

Matthew said the Department of Alabama’s sponsorship of his project was important. “It’s helped a lot,” he said. “They donated a lot of flags to my project, and they publicized it a lot.”

Matthew collected flags throughout February but said he continued to receive them a few weeks after that. Once he properly retired the final flag, he said he felt “a sense of accomplishment because I was done with the whole thing.”

In addition to attaining the rank of Eagle Scout, Matthew also was able to create a legacy for himself. Akers said the department is putting a new flag drop box outside of its headquarters. Its name: The Matthew Miller Flag Drop Box.

“He’s really an amazing young man,” Akers said. “I can’t say enough about him.”