"Why do US soldiers have a reversed flag on their right arm?" Topic

I noticed this the other day in some photos. Can someone explain why the stars are on the right?

yes, I could Google, no I don't want to, most of teh interweb is lies.

picture

Lots of discussion here a short while ago;
TMP link

It's to make the flag look like it is flowing backward due to the soldier always advancing forward.

clibinarium beat me to it..

regards

jim

"The flag is worn on the right shoulder to give the effect of the flag flying in the breeze as the wearer moves forward," Morales said. "This will serve as a vivid reminder that our nation is at war."

Got it, thanks.

It might be true, but it is a stupid reason. The flag would look exactly the same if one was fleeing in headlong panic from Bobby Lee or the People's Liberation Army or somebody.

Unless you were stupid enough to be running backwards.

A more sensible reason would just be simply that this is what that side of the American flag looks like. Just look at a real one.

Why speculate?

Army Regulation 670-1, "The full-color U.S. flag cloth replica is worn so that the star field faces forward, or to the flag's own right. When worn in this manner, the flag is facing to the observer's right, and gives the effect of the flag flying in the breeze as the wearer moves forward. The appropriate replica for the right shoulder sleeve is identified as the reverse side flag."

See 28-18:

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Dan

Because a designer needed a well paying job, and someone was willing to give them one…….

Perhaps we should do a Freedom on Info Request to see how many man/person hours, and how much money was spent on the project.

;-)

No, it was a c**k up when first sewn on, someone took a picture of it, then someone else noticed and asked the question…so they had to invent a reason for it.

A junior clerk in some basement Pentagon office was tasked to imagineer a reason. He passed the idea to his team leader, who passed it to the office manager, who passed it to the departmental liasion. From there it was memoed to a couple of focus groups, discussed, passed back for expansion and illucidation. Then resubmitted, re-evaluated, discussed at length and approved for submission to the uniform (insignia) sub committee pending presentation to the Armed Forces Ground Service Personnel Uniform Insignia full committee for discussion and……..

well you get the idea…

enough to say that a lot of man hours and a large proportion of the defence budget went into that excuse.

Oh….read this in an ever so slightly cynical tone of voice by the way, just incase anyone thought I was being serious. Know how touchy some TMP'ers can be.

It's an interesting regulation that flies in the face of standard American flag etiquette of always having the starfield in the upper right.

RobH, actually, that's perfectly possible – I recall the first World Series the Toronto Blue Jays played in, the Marine colour guard that marched out with the Canadian flag had it upside down!
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Tim

Same thing applies for having the flag on vehicles (police, fire, emergency, etc) including boats and aircraft. The union (Blue w/ stars) should be towards the front of the vehicle, but you see it very seldom that way.

It's written in the US Flag Code that way.

Isnt this just standard practise in heraldry.
Any design with a heraldic beast was usually reversed to show the creature advancing as it was considered dishonourable to have it 'moving' backwards.

It's fairly common worldwide to have the 'reverse' of the flag shown on the right shoulder of a uniform. For example, when I was in Scouts, we had the Welsh flag on our shoulders (see Rob H's sig above). The flag was 'reversed' on the right shoulder, so that the dragon faced forward.

It might be true, but it is a stupid reason. The flag would look exactly the same if one was fleeing in headlong panic from Bobby Lee or the People's Liberation Army or somebody.

Yeah, but they'd still be moving forward, even if forward was directly away from the enemy. Besides, if you're running away, you probably dropped the flag so you could run faster and hide better – thus the flag is only ever streaming on the advance.
-Kle.

"It's an interesting regulation that flies in the face of standard American flag etiquette of always having the starfield in the upper right."

??????????????????????????????????????????

To prevent further confusion on the important issue of a reverst flag on a soldiers shoulder, I believe a committee should be created to look at redesigning the flag so the field of stars is in the middle and the red and white strips are on either side.
This would eliminate needing to know if they are moving forwards and so on.

Just a thought. We know this will come up again.

Perhaps the picture was taken with the soldier was looking to the left, but the photographer liked the picture's composition better if he was looking to the right, so he reversed the image.

Star field in the upper LEFT corner!

It's also called the "canton".
-Kle.

The edge of the flag that's attached to the pole is called the 'Hoist'. The free end is called the 'Fly'. The upper corner of the flag at the Hoist is called the 'Canton'. The US Stars are therefore in the Canton – 'left' or 'right' does not come into it.

If the Hoist is on the left, you are looking at the 'Obverse' side of the flag. If the Hoist is on the right, you are looking at the Reverse.

When painted or drawn in a book, the accepted convention is for the Obverse to be shown.

However, it is also a widely-accepted convention for flags to be painted on vehicles, ships and aircraft, or worn on uniforms, with the Hoist toward the front. So the Obverse is normally worn/painted on the left/Port, while the Reverse is worn/painted on the right/Starboard.

However, there are exceptions: British Forces wear the Obverse of the Union Flag on both shoulders – probably because the differences of Obverse and Reverse on the Union Flag are too small to spot/embroider on a 1-inch wide flag badge. However, the RAF flash (red/sky blue/blue on uniforms or red/blue or red/white/blue on aircraft) is always shown in Reverse on the right arm of a uniform or Starboard side of an aircraft.