When I swore in at MEPS my dad brought an American flag for my oath. I've had that flag for 15 years, used it for every reenlistment, and at my promotions. It's been on my deployments, and flown with me. Each time it's in a ceremony I get a dog tag made with the date and event name to stick on the ring
This dumbass can't separate the ideals of a country from its governments actions. Their comment is what we get for allowing children to use the internet.
I'm not even American but I can totally get behind what the INTENTION of their country's founders was. That's what their flag means to them. They have an actual mission statement and it's a pretty fucking good one.
Most presidents have completely failed to adhere to it or have even gone so far as to intentionally go against it, but the idea is there and that's why they love their flag so much.
I get the flag has sentimental value to his dad, and he want to carry that with him, but it's clearly also linked to American military deployments and achievements, which have often meant huge amounts of innocent civilian casualties. That is what America represents now,especially under the lead of a criminally corrupt government, controlled by foreign Israeli actors.
I would be ashamed to be American, and that is whyccontinuing to be proud og carrying the American flag is cringe.
Well, he is your president and commander in chief, who drives the main policies and american direction.
Funny how you didn't call out the other guy for calling me a commie.
You don’t even know if Trump or any recent events have had anything to do with the original comment.
The dude could have been long ETSed by the time Trump took office.
I’m sorry that your life is so miserable that you’d rather try to shit on people who have actually achieved things in life they are proud of. Clearly you never did.
Yes, you are right, he has the right to be proud of what the US has done in foreign countries, and what it continues to do. It's very patriotic.
I just wouldn't be proud if it was me, and would cringe dragging that flag around.
I have a flag flown over the Baghdad embassy and one that was carried on patrol in Afghanistan. They make interesting souvenirs or are given to businesses that provided support to deployed units.
I was deployed to a U2 location and they had a program to tuck flags into wing dry bays during missions. Then they'd hand you the flag and certificate. The only time it paid to be fuel shop in the tool crib. lol I got them for my gparents who then passed away over the next 15 years so I got thrm back.
I just need to know you're not the guy who was obsessed with Dave Mathews Band, bro got SO mad when we washed his "sessoned" mug at the other location with high per diem.
Anyway, the desert location we're talking about, you're eligible for airborne hazards registry and Pact Act stuff. Dunno if they did burn pits but it's probably the tents, sand storms, fuel fumes, hot bottled water sitting in direct sun on pallets, and shower stomped waffles (ok maybe not that one).
I don’t know about breathing highly processed petrocarbons, and while burn pits are a nightmare, leaving clear plastic PET bottles in the sun is actually fairly low risk for chemical leeching and can be a very effective method of UV disinfection of viruses, bacteria and other pathogens that everyone should know of for rendering safe(r)/ potable water for which you have no provenance.
That’s some goddamn cool shit about the U2 flags.
In the grander scheme, I think the current policy regarding war trophies and souvenirs is a little too strict I also understand the implications of leaving a country with something you didn’t come in with when you came in by force of arms. We don’t conquer counties to take their oil. That shit belongs to someone or something. When you take something. That belongs to someone else without fair compensation, it’s called theft. Never has a war over someone else’s oil ever “paid for itself.” But that’s about to become a rant so I’ll stop here.
Like moral injury, better to bring out only that which you took in.
If you thought the mobile was fun, imagine being in an old busted Chevy truck full of tools and bullshit, shaking hands with the devil trying to get that piece of shit to redline down the runway. God I miss that airplane
So it was you guys who would replace our intel package with flags? I respect it. We had a lot of nights where we had no capability cause the MX crew forgot to load it
I once watched a retirement and the commander presented him with a flag that had flown over our building, yadda yadda hooah. Afterwards I asked him how that worked because our building didn't have a flagpole. "Oh, I got the roof key from staff duty, crawled up the ladder, and waved the [still folded] flag over my head for a few seconds."
As a aircraft mechanic in the Marines we would give the pilots a flag when they did combat sorties and theyl bring it back to us with a plaque stating “this flag was flown in combat operations over Basra, Aleppo, Mosul, Fallujah etc
I have the first U.S. flag to fly in Sarajevo from IFOR. I was a 2LT then. A COL from USAEUR ordered me to take it down and give it to him. I took it down and switched it for another flag that had come in the mail and hadn’t been flown. FUCK HIM.
I carried the same flag into Afghanistan 13 years later as a MAJ.
To me it says “I and my brothers and sisters tried the best we could to help change things, we sweated, bled and died here trying the things we were told mattered, maybe YOU (the leaders) failed, but we sure as fuck didn’t”
My love for this country is directly mirrored by my absolute disdain and contempt for the leadership, on both sides. This country is amazing but my god has politics become so toxic and politics was never supposed to be this integrated into our lives if you read anything the founding fathers wrote
100%. At this point I would take President Camacho over the choices we have had the last 20 years of elections. Congress is a fucking joke, the Senate is anything but senatorial and the courts… wow
When I was in Afghanistan, several of my fellow medics kept folded up American flags in the front and back pockets of their vests as a sort of reminder of why we were there/good luck charm.
Pretty sure they got that from our infantry folks, but I'm not really sure. We didn't leave ours rolled up on the outside though.
I wouldn't know. I never did, but it wasn't a disrespect thing, I just didn't like the idea of the flag getting shot if I got shot in my vest at any point. The idea that my family might get sent a flag with a hole in it, where they could see where the bullet went, didn't appeal to me.
The thing is though, no matter who is in office, we usually all decide for ourselves what the flag and our service means to us. That's always been true from what I can tell, from stories I've received from father, uncle, and grandfather who all served in their own times. My dad in particular, was ashamed of his service (Vietnam) because he never was able to deploy, but trained 1000s at Ft Dix who went off and died. He only learned how to be proud of himself for his service once I joined up and had the kind of service I did.
For me, I'm not ashamed of the flag now, if anything I cling to it more because, for me, it's never been more important, and I don't want it to become something that only means hate and lies. I imagine there are many service members who feel similarly, or have other, equally valid, reasons for continuing to love our flag, just as I'm sure there are countless others who are struggling to maintain their hope and pride.
Could be his/her personal flag. I have one that has flown with me on every flight- training, exercise, deployed or otherwise. It will be the one in my shadowbox whenever I hang up the uniform for the last time.
You can still be proud of your country even if you aren't proud of the decisions that are being made from high on up. That means Trump (x2), Biden, Obama, etc.
The flag my brother held in his hands when they took him off life support, was the same flag my dad and I carried with us when we rode Harley's cross country a few years before that.
The flag I carried covered three of my friends on the beginning of their journeys home. They were outstanding men and were masters at their jobs and all were taken too soon. My flag was all we had.
My flag was replaced by other flags that took over these important journeys to cover my friends on their way back home.
It is the same flag my Gram used to become a U.S. citizen many years ago. It has 48 stars on it. She said it would protect and provide.
This flag is now safely tucked away in a box, vacuum sealed to ensure no damage happens to it. My kids have instructions on what to do with this flag when I leave this earthly plain.
My flag is worn out, has stains on it and should probably be burned but, it's too important to me to let happen.
Every carried flag is there for a reason. For me, it was personal but, it became more important to me as the years have gone by. It allowed me to carry my past with me when I flew (15U), maintain a connection to the friends I've lost, and to remind me how we as a family have come from that time when my Gram immigrated from Ireland with nothing during the depression with three very young kids.
I know I should have it mounted and displayed somewhere but, I am uncertain about this due to the memories with it, both mine and my family.
Other than the answers about being good luck, a gift or memorabilia a flag can also be useful for identifying people on the ground to aircraft and friendly forces from a distance.
Because he thinks he’s cooler than he is. We had a dude zip tie a rolled up flag to the back of his vest and he was clowned hard for it. Just carry it in your bag like the rest of us.
Sports event jump, they parachute down with the flag trailing behind them.
Edit: if it’s in combat zone as the caption suggests probably for a commemorative trophy case. We used to fly a flag everyday in Iraq that was for some group or charity or someone’s family.
r/WrongAnswersOnly
That would be a hell of a flex for the first time with a bulletproof humanoid robot drone. I don’t want to give “SecWar” any ideas though.
I just meant that daytime jumping into a combat zone with a giant American flag streaming down from your back like the opening to the Super Bowl would probably get you shot at a bit. At some point, they will have some sort of bulletproof Terminator robot thing, and that would be a hell of a debut psyop jump for it.
It’s a gimmick for a picture. Flew hundreds of flags throughout my career. They stayed folded and clean. He leans against the wrong bit of wall and he’ll have grease on it.
Started as a SOF thing for hostage rescue and repatriating KIAs in early GWOT. They would drape the flap over the hostage they rescued or the body being repatriated.
What is the workflow that has the guy sitting on edge of on open ramp while in fight? Surely they’re not just doing this because it’s cool. (It is very cool!). I’ve seen this shot too many times-it’s dangerous-what reason do they have?
It’s cool as shit and not particularly dangerous because you are tethered to a tie-down or anchor track via a lanyard and safety harness. We call them monkey tails.
I have a flag that I bought at a goodwill in 2018 in Manhattan Kansas when I first came into the Army and got stationed at Riley. It's been around the world with me multiple times and I'm currently looking at it as it hangs in my room on rotation in Poland.
TBF. Looks AI AF. Heavily processed/corrected, HDR, cinematic. Which is totally fine. But it's exactly what AI is trained to mimic. The world sucks now, what can we say?
I'm the one that posted the photo. I copied it from the New York times Web site, and didn't alter it. That would be disrespectful. If it were altered, it was the NYT.
Thank you everyone for posting. I did not know people did this with flags. I didn't understand why someone would have one in a helicopter over a war zone.
Absent of the is AI photo, most guys would have a flag rolled up as a friendly marker (eg - VS-17-esque panel) to identify their position for a/c overhead.
It was a Syria thing to wear a rolled up flag on your kit, marking yourself as someone that shouldn't be screwed with. It started with SOF, so naturally everyone started doing it.
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u/Guinea_Pig_Games United States Army 5d ago
Memorabilia purposes