Valencia High School JROTC cadets give back with flag retirement ceremony

TOMÈ — Coming into the 2025-26 school year, the cadets and mentors of the Valencia High School’s JROTC program were looking to do something different, and to start a tradition that would also get them out into the community.

With the help of their mentor, retired Maj. Royal C. Atwood, the cadets decided to help the VHS community in a unique way, for a JROTC unit — properly retire old, worn-out American flags with a full-blown ceremony.

On Friday, Oct. 31, the cadets — Cadet Capts. Jayde Callaway and Zakary Allen, along with Corp. Abigail Prescott and U.S. Army Pvt. Dominic David Akira Bennett (who’s still a high school cadet doing a “split option” with the U.S. Army) gathered with two members of the Blue Star Mothers of Valencia County for their third flag retirement ceremony.

According to the United States Flag Code, when a flag is no longer fit to display, it “should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.”

The group said they’ve been working hard to put these ceremonies together, learning the ropes and even going through a “crazy amount of scripts” to get it just right.

“It just shows respect for the flags and everyone that went into the Army and fought for America,” said Prescott, while Allen adding that the ceremony makes him feel like “part of this nation, because I get to do stuff for other people that they probably can’t do.”

Calloway summed up their efforts to start the ceremony succinctly.

“We really wanted to try to give back to the people,” Calloway said. “And there’s a lot of people that we heard that they don’t have the right resources to retire their flags, and I do believe that flags need to be retired in a certain way.

“Honestly, before we started, I didn’t know about the process and ceremony either.

The germ of the idea came from JROTC instructor Atwood, who said “one of my church callings was to be the scoutmaster for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

“We would often do retirement ceremonies, and when I started teaching JROTC, it just made sense that we teach the students about the flags and how to properly dispose of them,” Atwood said. “We teach the students about the American patriotism behind the ceremony, so it was just a natural link to say, ‘Hey, why don’t we start doing (the ceremony) ourselves.’”

Both Callaway and Bennett said their ultimate goal is to grow this initiative for the unit and then maybe beyond Valencia County. Atwood said hoping to become a nationally recognized spot where people can simply mail in their flags for a proper retirement.

The Oct. 31 ceremony was the group’s third so far. Atwood said the first two ceremonies were a bit “rough,” but the group is hoping for more feedback and to keep improving.

VHS JROTC is working with local groups such as the Blue Star Mothers of Valencia County and the Veterans of Foreign Wars to get the word out about their efforts.

BSMVC chapter President Gloria Chavez-Sampson and Secretary Ruth Romero were both on hand Friday, saying they’re big fans of the JROTC.

Romero explained her husband was a JROTC instructor, and Chavez-Sampson said her husband and three children were all in ROTC and went on to become officers.

They both said they love seeing the young cadets learn discipline and patriotism. They also live stream the ceremonies, so everyone can see the great work these future leaders are doing.

“It’s so wonderful to see these youngsters dress up and learn protocol and public speaking,” Romero said. “They are the future. (Pvt.) Bennett, Cadet Callaway and the other cadets are doing a good job on all of this.”

“It feels great for me (to participate) because I do think I like to give back to the community, and it allows us to, as (Callaway) said, for people that can’t find the proper ways,” she added. “And due to a lot of people having to live out in the county, a lot of people that go to school here, this gives them an opportunity to come to us to retire their flags.”

Callaway said she hopes to return to Valencia High School after graduation to see the JROTC unit carrying the ceremony on and growing it further.

“I think it would be really amazing,“ she said. “It would be a very happy feeling for me, knowing that we started this, just seeing it go on. It’s a very proud moment, I feel. I’m very proud of everything we’ve done so far.”