Fishburne Military School will kick off the new school year with the “Blessing of the Colors’’ ceremony on Friday at 3 p.m. at Hitt-Millar Fieldhouse on the Waynesboro campus.
During the ceremony, the flags of the United States, the Commonwealth of Virginia and Augusta Military Academy are blessed.
Dr. Paul Mark Simpson of Rawlings School of Divinity at Liberty University will officiate the blessing. The guest speaker will be Brig. Gen. William Alexander, a retired superintendent of Fishburne.
The event is open to the public.
The Blessing of the Colors originates from when combat was conducted at close quarters, and soldiers needed to determine where their regiment was located during the heat of battle. This feat was accomplished by the regiment carrying its colors into the fight. The colors are a set of giant flags, unique to each regiment, allowing a soldier to identify them immediately.
The Hitt-Millar Fieldhouse is a 23,000-square-foot facility that opened in 2019. The Hitt and Millar families donated the $4.5 million facility. The donors include Russell A. Hitt, class of 1953, his wife Joan Hitt, his daughter Tracey Hitt-Millar, and her husband, Jim Millar.
