Folding the flag

[Gold Winger]

Could someone please enumerate the steps for the official way to fold the flag?

[Bob White]

http://www.usflag.org/foldflag.html

[Gold Winger]

Bzzzzz. . . . try again

[nolesrule]

Ok. Here you go. Step by step instructions of the official way to fold a U.S. flag.

 

1.

2.

3.

4.

 

I'm pretty sure that's an accurate description, although honestly, I'm not sure I got the exact number of steps correct.

 

[Gold Winger]

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!

[nolesrule]

I was surprised when I found out that there was no official way to fold the flag...and yes, I knew the answer already, so I didn't look it up tonight. The traditional method of folding the flag into a triangle is so ingrained that people just assume that it is official.

 

When done well, it really is a wonderfully ceremonial way to fold the flag. Besides, I'd rather it not remind me of folding my sheets.

 

I really need to go to bed, but all this flag discussion reminded me that I still need to find a nice display case for my flag that flew over the Capitol when I earned Eagle. I'm thinking of going with something that has a shadowbox so I can add some of my patches from when I was a Boy Scout.(This message has been edited by nolesrule)

[Bob White]

BZZZZZZZ

 

Oh, I am so sorry, GW was incorrect and will not be going to the championship round.

 

You see there are a lot of ways that something can be

"official", it does not have to be government prescribed.

 

This being a scouting forum, and we being members of the BSA, the Boy Scout Handbook explains the way that as Scouts we fold an American flag . It is explained in multiple BSA BSA resources and is a required skill for the Tenderfoot rank as a Boy Scout. Thus making it "official" by being the prescribed method from an authority, in this case the BSA.

 

It is the same as the method shown in the upper portion of the site I shared the link to.

 

Folding the American flag is not only traditional but for members of the BSA it is the prescribed (official) way that scouts do it.

 

Thanks for playing we will see you back next time.

 

 

[evmori]

Are there bees in here????

 

I read the entire UNITED STATES CODE TITLE 36 CHAPTER 10 and found nothing related to the official way to fold the flag. Now the BSA does have a method for folding the flag so this could be considered the Official BSA way to fold the flag.

 

Since in your initial post, GW, you didn't specify what official way you were looking for, there are potentially two correct answers. And the link Bob posted is from the same site that houses the UNITED STATES CODE TITLE 36 CHAPTER 10, yet there is no wording in the code regarding folding the flag.

 

So to summarize, according to the UNITED STATES CODE TITLE 36 CHAPTER 10, there is no official way to fold the flag.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[nolesrule]

It's the flag of the United States of America. Only the United States of America (through the Flag Code and the occassional related executive order) can determine what is official and what is not. Just because an organization (BSA or otherwise) says "this is how you fold the flag" doesn't make it official, just an unqualified recommendation conveyed in a manner of authority.

[John-in-KC]

There is a tradition to how we fold the Color.

 

It's just that, a tradition.

 

99% of the time, do a partner and I fold the tricorn? Yes.

 

There is nothing out there that says you cannot roll the Color up and case it. In fact, that's what Armed Forces Color Guards do all the time when they are moving Colors around before a ceremony, review, or parade.

 

More than once, I've taken a sopping wet from a storm flag down, hung it over a indoor clothesline to dry. Lacking someone to help me keep a tight fold on a tricorner, the next day I folded the flag square.

 

No one has asked for my passport, ID card, or decided to give me an Article 15 yet.

[Bob White]

Words have meaning and you cannot ignore a definition of "official" just because it does not fit your goal.

 

The site I offered explains the official Air force method, which is also shared by other branches of the armed forces of the US.

 

"Official" has many definitions, and among them are "prescribed or recocgnized as authorized." The BSA in multiple official Handbooks prescribes a specific method of folding the flag and requires that it be done in that precribed manner as a requirement of advancement.

 

An act need only be prescribed by an authority to be official withinh that authority. (as exampled by the armed forces official way to fold the flag). Nothing requires it to be a government edict to be "official".

 

Had GW specified that he wanted to to the offical method prescribed by the Flag Code for folding a flag then he would be correct. But he did not. He simply asked for an official way, and he got an "official way.

 

He asked scouters on a scouting forum about an "official" method, and the BSA prescribes a specific method. Such action meets the definition of "official", unless you intend to ignore the definition of the word?

 

 

 

 

 

[BadenP]

When are you guys going to learn that Bobby White is never wrong, if it is in the BSA handbook than its the official "American" way, lol.

 

(Editorial comment by OGE, BobWhite has admitted he was wrong on several occassion, so its is not correct to say that Bob White is never wrong)

 

nolesrule is correct that for an "official" method that must come from the US government. All of the methods , BSA, military are "traditions" for that organization and that does not make them official by any definition of the word Bobby.

 

(Just because you may not care for a poster's style does not make them wrong or fodder for attacks, OGE) (This message has been edited by a staff member.)

[Gold Winger]

" GW was incorrect and will not be going to the championship round"

 

Hmmmm . . . didn't know that I was playing. Once again, BeeDub is very confused.

[NJCubScouter]

When I first saw GW's question (before there was any response), it seemed so obvious that it was a trick question and/or a "baiting" question that I decided no good could come of answering it. Turns out I was right. The "trick" is in the word "official", which has more than one meaning, especially in the context of a forum concerning one particular organization. As for the "baiting", I think the discussion speaks for itself.

[evmori]

I always take the word "official" to mean from the source that governs. In this case it would be the Flag Code, not the BSA or the Air Force. Since the Flag Code doesn't address a proper way to fold a flag, one could infer as long as the flag is treated with respect, any what you want to fold it is OK.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10