How to properly hang a U.S. Flag

As a (“former”) Boy Scout (Once a Boy Scout, always a Boy Scout), one of the things that truly grinds my gears is when someone improperly handles or displays a U.S. flag. Sure, sure it is a relatively small thing, only it really isn't because usually the folks that are handling the flags tend to think of, or refer to themselves as patriots. Well, you see— to my way of thinking, if you are going to call yourself a patriot, then you should know the proper way to display the iconic image that denotes your very patriotism.

Now, while I have, quite often, seen improperly-displayed flags in public, where I generally tend to see them improperly displayed most often, is in entertainment (films, TV, Comics), and have called it out on a number of occasions — both in person, and in this blog, it always seems that folks simply never quite seem to understand that research is important, and just because you "know" something, if you are working on a project, that you really need to look things up before committing them to paper or film.

A couple of films that I recall having wrongly-hung flags, are Hoosiers (1986) and Meteor (1979).

In Hoosiers, in the background of numerous scenes that took place in gyms, during various basketball games the flag on the wall was hung backwards.

In Meteor, there is a scene towards the end of the film where the U.S. flag is hung alongside a Russian flag, and the U.S. flag is hung backwards (I have no idea if the Russian flag is hung correctly).

Needless to say, comics, film and real life aren't the only places where the flag, or an image of the flag is improperly displayed. We tend to decorate our clothing with flag imagery as well, and yep, you guessed it, it is often displayed there wrong as well.

 

Still, what set off this current tirade is that I spotted this image in the January 2018 edition of Marvel Spotlight.

So, here we have that classic image of “soldiers” (mercs?) who have painted the U.S. flag on their face (presumably to show what bad-ass “Patriots” they are, only (again) they have painted the flag wrong!

Specifically:

• When the flag is hung vertically on a wall, window, or door, the Union (blue section) should be to the observer’s left. When the flag is hung either horizontally or vertically against a wall, the Union should be to the observer’s left.

So this version of the painted flag on their faces is simply wrong! Wrong! WRONG!

Once again:

This is wrong

This is correct

Thanks for paying attention, and you know, feel free to pass it around.