Part 1: Why the “Backwards” Flag Isn’t Backwards at All
Hey there, it’s Kevin again.
Today I want to talk about something that still bugs a lot of us veterans — and a surprising number of civilians — when we see the American flag on a uniform sleeve, a police car, or a jersey. It looks “backwards.” Stars on the right, blue field leading the way. A lot of people assume it’s wrong. Some even get offended.
The truth is the opposite.
Caption suggestion: Correct reverse flag patch — blue field leads forward
When the flag is worn on the right shoulder (or displayed on the right side of a moving vehicle), the union — the blue field with the stars — faces forward. It’s called the reverse flag, or sometimes the “assaulting flag.” The idea is simple and powerful: the flag is flying as if the wearer is charging forward. The stars lead the way. We don’t retreat. We advance.
Caption suggestion: Right shoulder — stars lead the way
That tradition goes back a long way in the U.S. military. It’s not some new fashion or a mistake. It’s deliberate. The Flag Code itself is pretty quiet on the exact details of uniform wear, but military regulations and long-standing custom make the reverse orientation the correct one on the right side. What a lot of people confuse it with is flying the flag upside down — that is a recognized signal of distress. Blue field forward on the shoulder is not.
I’ll be honest. My dad and I both got this wrong for years. We used to look at those patches and think, “That’s backwards.” It wasn’t until someone who knew the history sat us down and explained it that it clicked. Once you understand the “always advancing” meaning, you never unsee it.
Caption suggestion: Right side of a vehicle — blue field faces forward
Being gamers, we notice this stuff. A while back we opened a ticket in Armored Warfare because several national flags (including the U.S., France, New Zealand, and Italy) were oriented incorrectly on the vehicles and patches. To their credit, the developers actually looked into it, confirmed the issue, and fixed every affected flag in a later update. They even mentioned the correction in the patch notes. Small thing? Maybe. But it showed they cared enough to get the details right.
More recently, my dad and I ran into the same issue closer to home. We were at Military Appreciation Night for the Green Bay Blizzard (I’m a first-year season ticket holder). The special military jerseys they were wearing and selling had the flag flipped the wrong way. I sent an email to Ryan Napralla, who handles Group & Season Ticket Sales for the Blizzard, fully expecting a polite form reply or nothing at all.
Instead, during the game — end of the first quarter heading into the second — Ryan walks over, sits down with us, and asks us to walk him through it. No defensiveness. No excuses. Just genuine curiosity. He spent five or ten minutes asking questions and talking about how they could get it right for next year’s jerseys. We ended up buying one of those jerseys that night. Not because the flag was wrong, but because he cared enough to come sit with two fans in the middle of a game and listen. That’s the kind of thing you don’t forget. Big-name teams might send a carefully worded email. Someone from a smaller team sitting down with you while the game is still going? That’s real.
This is Part 1. There’s a lot more in the Flag Code and the customs that surround it — proper folding, half-staff rules, when and how to display it, what constitutes disrespect, and some of the lesser-known traditions that still matter to a lot of us who wore the uniform. I’ll dig into more of that soon.
Thanks for reading and for taking the time to understand.
Kevin Laughrin
Medically retired LSSN, VFA-103 “The Jolly Rogers”
Marketing & Communications Director
kevin@veteranvalorcoffee.com
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