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One reason that so few people are complaining that the Air Force removed its online posting of the old script and instituted a new ceremony without religious references, Zimmerman suggested, is that few were even aware of the older version.

In his four years of military service, Zimmerman said, "I never once saw that ceremony performed in any way, shape, or form."

There are no official Air Force ceremonies that require reading a script during the folding of the flag but soldiers often ask for one to be read at their retirement ceremony. The only official flag-folding ceremonies in the Air Force are for funerals and retreats, both of which are silent.

According to the Air Force, the flag is folded at these ceremonies as a symbolic tribute to those who have served in our nation's armed services and out of respect for the flag.

Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the First Amendment Center, suggests that conservative religious groups have been silent on the change because they understand that the military cannot take an official position on religion if it is supposed to accommodate all faiths.

A survey conducted by the Air Force in June reveals that 0.6% of the 275,457 current enlistees describe themselves as "atheist" and that 17.8% have "no religious preference."

"Ceremonies used to be framed by Protestant Christian language because there was a broad consensus—they just assumed that is how public rituals were performed," Haynes said. "The vestiges of that have been challenged in recent decades as the nation has grown more diverse and as people of minority faiths and of no faith have found their voice."

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The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported on the change in its July 4 edition.

The earlier flag-folding script is still available on many unofficial websites.

An Air Force press release announced that the new script's "intent was to move away from giving meaning, or appearing to give meaning, to the folds of the flag and to just speak to the importance of the flag in U.S. Air Force history."

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July (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50