Reversed American flag on uniforms

How to read it

The Army’s uniform guide, DA Pam 670-1, puts the flag insignia on the right shoulder of utility uniforms and says it is worn “so that the star field faces forward or to the flag’s own right”, which gives “the effect of the flag flying in the breeze as the wearer moves forward”. On the right shoulder that puts the stars on the observer’s right, and the guide names that patch the reverse side flag. A flag on the left shoulder has its stars on the observer’s left, as on a flagpole, and they face forward too. The Flag Code allows a flag patch on the uniforms of military personnel, firefighters, police officers and members of patriotic organizations.

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Why the stars face forward

An Army spokesman, Lt. Col. Stanley Heath, told Stars and Stripes in 2004 that the patch is worn so that to observers “it looks as if the flag is flying against a breeze”. The paper traces the rule to battles in which one soldier, the standard bearer, carried the colours into the fight: as he charged, the flag streamed back, with the canton, mounted closest to the pole, in front.

On aircraft and spacecraft

The same convention shows on vehicles. The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum points to two Space Shuttles: on the side of Discovery the flag appears as it would on a flagpole, and on the side of Enterprise it appears in reverse. Apollo astronauts wore it on the left shoulder, where it reads as it does on a pole.

Not upside down

A reversed flag still has its stars at the top. The upside-down flag, with the stars at the bottom, is the Flag Code’s signal of dire distress.