Posted on Aug 22, 2014
CPT Aaron Kletzing
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Recently, I had a long and heated discussion with a fellow veteran about this issue. I don't know for sure whether a branch-specific reg or a DoD-wide reg exists that prohibits/allows personnel on a military installation to display the Confederate flag on their personal vehicle or on their person (e.g. a belt buckle). Maybe this is a base-specific policy and left to the judgment of the installation commander. Display of the Confederate flag is a divisive issue and people often feel really strongly one way or the other. But today, it is still a relevant topic and touches on other military leadership/discipline areas, including the actions of one member deeply offending another member -- regardless of whether said action is legal/authorized. That can create huge problems in a military unit, and this happened in a unit I personally served in. So, below are my questions for the RallyPoint community about this issue.

Please try to keep comments professional (don't attack one another) and explain your thoughts as best you can.

Questions:
(1) How do you feel about the Confederate flag being displayed on the vehicle/person of a service member if he/she is ON post? How does your opinion change if the member is OFF post?
(2) What does the Confederate flag symbolize to you personally? What do you think it can symbolize to other people around you who may perceive it differently?
(3) If you have personally experienced a military-related situation where a symbol/flag caused someone to be offended, what happened and what did you/would you have done as the leader?

I look fwd to everyone's thoughts on this. Personally, I have some strong feelings about this issue, though I don't want to bias people's answers upfront. Please be as honest as possible.

Tag: SSG Emily Williams Col (Join to see) 1SG Steven Stankovich SSG Scott Williams 1LT Sandy Annala CPT (Join to see) SSG V. Michelle Woods MSG Carl Cunningham
Edited 10 y ago
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Responses: 326
SSG Stephan Pendarvis
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As long as I don't get called the "N" word or get treated like I am not human. I am ok. I expect to be respected as he would any other person walking the earth. I have southern pride too being from SC. I actually understand part of the southern pride. But only as far as they way of simple livin and all. Hell...I even love country music even though it never had me and my race in mind. I like the Merican feel of it. But I know it is for a target audience or group. And some would even say it is not my music...but whatever...it is a mindset. And the flag is also a mindset in the same way. I know the roots to the flag and it's links to the hood. I would even go as far to saw that there are two different groups of flag people. Ones that are racist and ones that are just cool guys that love all and love their southern roots. It is damn hard to tell the difference...often until it is too late.
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SSG Stephan Pendarvis
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As long as I don't get called the "N" word or get treated like I am not human. I am ok. I expect to be respected as he would any other person walking the earth. I have southern pride too being from SC. I actually understand part of the southern pride. But only as far as they way of simple livin and all. Hell...I even love country music even though it never had me and my race in mind. I like the Merican feel of it. But I know it is for a target audience or group. And some would even say it is not my music...but whatever...it is a mindset. And the flag is also a mindset in the same way. I know the roots to the flag and it's links to the hood. I would even go as far to saw that there are two different groups of flag people. Ones that are racist and ones that are just cool guys that love all and love their southern roots. It is damn hard to tell the difference...often until it is too late.
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SSG Stephan Pendarvis
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As long as I don't get called the "N" word or get treated like I am not human. I am ok. I expect to be respected as he would any other person walking the earth. I have southern pride too being from SC. I actually understand part of the southern pride. But only as far as they way of simple livin and all. Hell...I even love country music even though it never had me and my race in mind. I like the Merican feel of it. But I know it is for a target audience or group. And some would even say it is not my music...but whatever...it is a mindset. And the flag is also a mindset in the same way. I know the roots to the flag and it's links to the hood. I would even go as far to saw that there are two different groups of flag people. Ones that are racist and ones that are just cool guys that love all and love their southern roots. It is damn hard to tell the difference...often until it is too late.
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CWO3 Us Marine
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Who cares? If it's about heritage then fly the flag of your State or where your family immigrated from, but if you want to fly it go ahead. I only fly one flag and it's the American Flag. Whether you align with them or not, it has been used by some bad folks that have done some bad things. Nobody but you will know your reason for flying it but I support your right. Even if you do align with them, that is your right also, provided you don't act on it against others. I don't think it should be flown in any official capacity and never with our US Flag, but otherwise it's much ado about nothing.
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TSgt Ray Rock
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I don’t care what people wear or display.

To resolve this they should make this flag and “X” hats, shirts etc. the same. They are either signs of pride in one’s heritage that are allowed or they are both signs of racism and hatred and neither are allowed.
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MSgt Hamish Barrett
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I have lived in many of these united states. Many of them were once foreign territory. These states fly the flags of the US, Spain, France, & the Confederacy. I do not feel insulted or afraid of any of them. I say who cares. There are more pressing things to worry about. Its like the English worrying over Roundheads & Cavaliers or red roses & white roses. Get over it.
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PO2 Jerome O'Neil
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It is the flag of treason, and we aught to hang our head in shame any time someone starts waving it around.
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SGT Michael Sholtis
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That flag is as disgusting to me as is the Nazi flag the Soviet flag or The ISIS flag. Regardless of your "Heritage" (I am from Virginia) it's the flag of an enemy of the United States of America. That symbol is responsible for a lot of Americans Dead. It represents Hatred and prejudice and there is no room for that in the Military of the United States. You swore an oath to defend the United States not the CSA. The excuse of heritage is also bullshit! We all came from somewhere as far a heritage goes. Doesn't mean because my ancestors came from Norway I should display their Flag, nothing against Norway, I'm sure it's a fine country, it's just not my country....
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Lots of Americans from both sides, same families. I have some graves just by my house. I drive through a civil war battlefield everyday. I had relatives in the South, North, and West. I married into a family that suffered slaughter at the hands of both Germany and the Soviets twice during the back and forth control. I am also a decendant of two tribes in the US that lived here first and were relocated or slaughtered here. I have Jewish lineage and I could say they haven't had a good rap (not maternal). My wife is related to Gypsies. The world is complicated and there are no real good answers. Can we support our ideas or not? Where do you really draw the line? Nazi was a party similar to Democrat and Republican, and like all good Germans, they followed their leaders. The Soviet flag represented a modern nation-state and some additional alliances and pacts of strategic positions and an ideal that thought slaughtering my wife's family met their requirements (nice access to shore front property). I support the ideas behind the United States, part because it was what I taught, but I believed in the principles behind what we were experimenting with. A nation that is not one nation. A country that isn't a county, a federation of states where people could have a voice, evolving into a modern-nation state with some well thought out ideas. My ideas have evolved, but those principles helped guide me in my pursuit to answer the most difficult question we have faced at us: can we get along in this nation of ours, with all our different cultures and identities, our families and our heritages, some here for generations, some just getting here, no national language, a wide variety of viewpoints and impressions? I'd say we are off to a pretty good start, but we have so far to go. There are no easy answers. Communists, Socailists, Environmentalists, Conservatives, Modern Conservatives, Modern Liberals, Classical Liberals, many flavors of anarchists, Free-Market Libertarians, Voluntaryists, Republicans, Democrats, Social Democrats, Every religion, Native Peoples and the Indian Affairs Bureau, Immigrants, Illegal Immigrants, Criminals, Crazy people, Imperialists, Corporations (that think they have rights), the list is long, this is just a few. Most modern countries have many of these problems, but we decided we would welcome everyone from everywhere and deal with their ideas too (since almost the beginning). Now, that's a fun experiment. How do you think it's going?
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LTC Self Employed
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There's a lot of racism against native Canadians indigenous Canadians also known as Indians in Canada and it seems like a lot of the guys who mouth off to these people have Confederate flags on their car or covering their window so the thing to do with the South nothing to do with the it is to do with racism at least up here in Canada.
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SFC Charles Temm
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so?

First Amendment, second part...you don't agree w/it but since this doesn't have any effect on a troop's military performance it's tough it may hurt somebody's feelings...

We ARE discussing something that is happening in the armed forces and not some college right?
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