There Will Never Be A More Beautiful Flag Than This

Look it up.

h.p.

 

I see there’s a bit of confusion.
The “fly” is indeed the outer half and edge opposite the “pike side”, the pike being the actual staff or pole that the flag is attached to.
The ball or “finial” is mounted atop the pole and the “truck” are the two bearing like rings in which the flag is attached to keep the flag from tangling or rolling itself around the pike.

It is also interesting to some that a fringe was normally only displayed on a Silk flag and is meant to give the flag some weight so it can be flown properly and also to keep the fly from fraying.

 

The "rope" used to hoist the flag is called the same as it's called on sailboats: The Halliard.

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Hal

 

So @Yvonne Smith the blue and white striped one is what exactly? I have to say I love your Stars and Stripes.. not a shred of doubt that it belongs to the American people.. unlike our national emblem. People look at ours and must question our sovereignty over retaining a foreign emblem on our national flag. I ask the same question of our government.

 

I might further my first post by explaining why the blue striped flag came to be because frankly, there’s a lot of Americans who do not know what it’s about.

During the Obama administration, a Latino security guard who was instantly referred to as “white”, shot and killed Trevon Martin, a black male. The incident hit the news and the president, B. Obama picked up the gauntlet and made it a much larger issue which caused a lot of social unrest.
Not to go into a whole lot of specifics about later “police versus black citizens” provoked and unprovoked shootings;
between the media, B. Obama, Erik Holder, Al Sharpton and a new group, Black Lives Matter, a racial war was on the horizon with the police as the center.
Cops were being randomly murdered whilst on duty, towns and parts of cities were being ransacked and it seemed that everyone was up in arms ready and waiting for the trouble to start at their own back doors.
Then of course, we had and still have the Kaepernick incidents and his copycats who took a knee whilst the National Anthem played before football games supposedly in protest to police brutality and some other yet undefined reasons.

In the wake of all of the unrest, a flag was developed to show that everyone isn’t against our first responders. There was actually 2 flags, one with our normal red and white stripes but with a blue stripe just under the field, and mine, a black and white flag (for racial unity) and the blue stripe symbolizing support for the police and first responders.

I’ll have to look it up but it was produced by a flag company owned and operated by military veterans and the flag was free with the exception of a shipping charge of $4.29 or something like that. Now, I haven’t seen another one like it but there must be a lot of them out there because the orders were so backlogged that it took nearly 2 months to get it.
My initial fears about flying it were for nothing because if anything, I’ve had people ask me about it and after explaining it, they have either asked how they could get one or simply approved of the flag in one manner or another.

Edit: There has been one disapproving comment about the “back the blue” flag but he doesn’t live on my street or even in my city nor does he share many of my values. So do I care? Not really.

Edit: The present flag is pretty tattered on the edges so I just ordered a new one on Amazon for $6.95

 

Thanks for the explanation @Bobby Cole. I have the feeling you Americans are more national conscience than many other nations. I am as patriotic as anyone in America but I wont fly our national emblem for reasons I have described. I do however fly the 'Boxing Kangaroo' flag that symbolises Australia's combative spirit and which was born out of our famous America's Cup yachting triumph in 1983.

 

Dunno Craig. When I was in Nam, I had a lot to do with some of you Aussies and I don’t think any of them had a problem letting folks know where they were from or had a problem displaying the flag.
I can’t recall one Australian soldier who was sane though and the Huey pilots were flipping outrageous which might have lent a little to their need to let everyone know who they were including the flag they flew. If a person couldn’t fight, fly or party as hard as they could then whoever needed to find somewhere else to go.
I’m sure the Vietnamese certainly remember them.

When I came back stateside I even got into trouble because of an Aussie door gunner. While in Nam, I won a pair of Australian jump boots in a poker game from him and I was still wearing them when I hit my first change of station. The company commander didn’t care for them too much and I was ordered to get a proper U.S. military pair of jump boots.
I must have kept those boots for about 15 years or so. Good memories.

 

It sort of sounds like they named it after you.

 

The Vietcong certainly remember them from Long Tan. The Japanese from Kokoda, PNG in WW2. The Germans and Turks WW1 at Beersheba, Palestine.
Have you seen The Odd Angry Shot about Aussie diggers in Nam Bobby.. a tee to what you wrote.