Where do patches belong?

[GlassJaw]

I'm in the military. we were it on our left arm. so are we the ENTIRE United States military disrespecting the flag that we fight for and protect?

There are some U.S. military (and police) units who display the flag on their right shoulder. But there are some who feel that that orientation suggests that the soldier is retreating (because of the direction the flag would trail if flown from a pole born by the troops). Thus, some units either display the flag on the other sleeve or use a reversed flag on the right.

There is no standard on that within the Code.

However, some parts of the Code are so very far from the actual practice that they have become functionally obsolete. The Code prohibits printing the image of the flag on anything temporary (such as with a "Made in USA" label or in a newspaper) or using it as part of a logo or emblem. These violations are so widespread that achieving any meaningful level of compliance to those parts of the Code is impossible. (Yes, even the flag stamps from the US Postal Service are a violation.)

The "patriotism" functions of displaying the flag have eclipsed the wartime "friend or foe" functions. It is no longer a sign of whether a person or ship is a combatant. Additionally, many of the accepted uses worldwide for national flags (such as printing on passports or destination tags) are unacceptable under the Code but are practiced anyway to maintain consistency when dealing with multiple nations.

In our TKD association we have the name of the school on the left shoulder, our kwan patch on the left breast, student's name on the right breast, and our association's emblem (which does, by the way, incorporate both the US and South Korean flags) on the right shoulder.

Since our school does not have a permanent dojang space, we have to put the flags (US and South Korean) up before each class and retire them at the end. Because there is a strong tendency to work left to right each time and take down the US flag before the South Korean, I often have to remind folks that US Flag Code directs us that the US flag is the first one to be hung and the last one to be lowered.

Also, we hang our kwan banner right between the two flags on the same wall (with their edges nearly touching, because we are very limited on useable wallspace). To me, that is also improper display because no non-national flag should be displayed with the same precedence at national flags. Even though it is technically a banner rather than a flag, I feel that since it is the same size as the flags and displayed in the same way makes it a violation.

Another flag-related practice (which I'm not too keen on) in our dojang is that we fold the South Korean flag in the same three-cornered-hat method as one uses for the US flag (which ends up as an attractive, tight, triangular package with only the star-spangled blue field showing). I'm pretty sure that that method was intended to be unique to the US flag and is not an appropriate way to fold or store any other flag.

Dan

 

[TKD_Father]

My son's school just got patches. School emblem on the left chest, Korean flag on the left sleeve, and US flag on the right sleeve.

I was aware of the Flag Code and brought it up to the school's Master. He asked me "It's just a code, right?"

I guess you can disagree with the use, but bottom line is you can't do a thing about it.

 

[Tez3]

It's very interesting the passion your flag brings out in you! I understand how seriously you treat it so I'm guessing you're probably be appalled at what we do with ours. We make shopping bags out of it, bedspreads, skirts, put it on all manner of things, we rarely fly it and aren't bothered much really. the Union flag is just that, a flag. However the countries do take their own flags quite seriously, the Cross of St Andrew, the St George's Cross, the Welsh Dragon, the Cornish flag of St Piran etc. Nobody gets upset with whatever people do with the Union flag really. People are no less patriotic for it mind.
I've not seen any martial artists though with any flag on their uniforms here though that doesn't mean they don't.
The military here fold all types of flag into the three cornered shape so it's not unique to the States I'm afraid. It may be a very old tradition predating the US.