The Wrentham Boy Scouts Troop 131 retired thousands of flags on Thursday at the Wrentham American Legion as part of their Flag Day observence.

Each flag was carefully folded and recognized by the scouts before being formally retired and then burned. 

While not an official practice of Flag Day, the retirement of American flags is a serious and solem business. Only three organizations in the country, the Boy Scouts of American, The American Legion and the U.S. Military are legally allowed to retire flags in this fashion.

Scout Master Robbie Rankin said that as a veteran, this is his fourth flag retirement ceremony.

"I'm very proud to be a part of it," he said. "As a veteran, I've participated a couple of times before. I'm very proud of these guys. This is a great turnout, considering we announced it three days ago. It was very short notice and I'm very impressed with them."

The thousands of flags came from friends and family of the Legion, Wrentham Post Office drop offs and the Wrentham cemetery.