Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Ken McKay of the Marine Corps League, Omega House Executive Director Mike Lutz and Omega house board member Ginny Hemmer raise a new American flag and unhook the old one during a dedication ceremony Thursday.

HOUGHTON — The high winds battering the American flag flying above Omega House were only a sliver of the conditions it’s flown through since going up in December.

The flag marked the end of its service as a new flag was dedicated at a ceremony 11 a.m. Veterans Day.

Ken McKay of the Marine Corps League Keweenaw Detachment No. 1016 led the way.

McKay served in the Marines from 1967 to 1968, in duties such as the motor pool and inspecting training sites.

As the military honors representative of the Copper Country Veterans Association, McKay has performed 69 services this year, including funerals.

Raising the flag Thursday, he thought of the 13 American service members killed during the Afghanistan withdrawal. He showed photos of them, which he keeps on his dashboard, after Thursday’s ceremony.

“They served a cause greater than themselves and gave everything,” he said.

Since Omega House opened, about 250 veterans have spent their last days there, said Executive Director Michael Lutz. Upon arriving at Omega House, all of them get a miniature U.S. flag and one for their branch of the military, both donated by the Marine Corps League Keweenaw Detachment.

The Marine Corps League typically performs a ceremony when a new flag goes up, Lutz said.

“It’s important that we honor those veterans who put their lives in harm’s way and this is just one way of doing it,” Lutz said. “I just think it’s just what we need to do. Making a formal celebration or dedication of a flag on Veterans Day just makes so much sense.”

After flags are retired, McKay will fold them and then drop them off at veterans’ posts such as South Range or Lake Linden.

Cloth flags are burned in a ceremony. The Department of Defense bars the burning of polyester flags; those are instead buried in a secure location.

Looking at the old flag, McKay thinks about all the time the flag flew and the life that happened under its watch.

“Like this facility — the people work so hard to care for our local community, and the veterans,” he said. “That flag has experienced a lot of moments. There was a lot of life led during the flying of that flag.”