usmcbeta
11-27-12, 10:44 PM
Hello I'm curious if anyone knows the proper way to raise and lower flags in a respectful military manner. Im a FAP working as a 5811(MP) and on sundays I have to lower various flags. to name a few , the Colors, POW flag, dont tread on me flag etc.
Last Sunday I had a negative counseling written and 3 months of duty because a retired Gunnery Sergeant was sitting inside his car watching me and another Marine from across the street take down the flags. As we where taking down the flags he yelled at us and said " You treat those flags with respect, you hear me you treat those flags with respect and you do it right or im going to call your patrol supervisor ". and we just said yes sir. and we kept lowering the rest of the flags.
After we finished lowering the flags the retired Gunnery Sergeant dialed his phone and drove away, apparently hes been in Cherry Point forever ,knows everyone on base and is notorious for blowing things out of proportion.He makes a call to one of the higher ups and crap rolls downhill, 20 minutes later I get my butt blasted, I have a negative counseling and 3 months of my sgt's duty.
I started thinking about where did we go wrong. I've done the procedure exactly as I was explained to me. First I face the flagpole reach for the rope, untie it then lower the flag. The other Marine grabs the flag so it doesn't touch the deck and I unhook the flag. Then we fold the flag in a triangular shape and store it away. We follow the same procedure for all other flags with the exception of the Colors. This flag is the last one to be lowered and we face the flag I march to the front of the flagpole and the other Marine marches to the side of the flagpole and as I lower the flag the other Marine salutes showing respect for the colors. then I unhook it we fold it and store it away.
That is the procedure that it the other Marine taught me and he is an actual MP with 3 yrs of service. We where both clueless as to what we did wrong
At the end of the day me and the other Marine where punished with negative counseling, and NCO's piggybacked on the incident and gave us their duty for 3 months. the NCO's could not find written instructions, on how to properly do the raising and lowering of the flags. but we where corrected with what they assumed was right.
I'm still in the dark and I need to know how to do this properly without assumptions or else I'm just going to skate out of this procedure as much as I can.
Last Sunday I had a negative counseling written and 3 months of duty because a retired Gunnery Sergeant was sitting inside his car watching me and another Marine from across the street take down the flags. As we where taking down the flags he yelled at us and said " You treat those flags with respect, you hear me you treat those flags with respect and you do it right or im going to call your patrol supervisor ". and we just said yes sir. and we kept lowering the rest of the flags.
After we finished lowering the flags the retired Gunnery Sergeant dialed his phone and drove away, apparently hes been in Cherry Point forever ,knows everyone on base and is notorious for blowing things out of proportion.He makes a call to one of the higher ups and crap rolls downhill, 20 minutes later I get my butt blasted, I have a negative counseling and 3 months of my sgt's duty.
I started thinking about where did we go wrong. I've done the procedure exactly as I was explained to me. First I face the flagpole reach for the rope, untie it then lower the flag. The other Marine grabs the flag so it doesn't touch the deck and I unhook the flag. Then we fold the flag in a triangular shape and store it away. We follow the same procedure for all other flags with the exception of the Colors. This flag is the last one to be lowered and we face the flag I march to the front of the flagpole and the other Marine marches to the side of the flagpole and as I lower the flag the other Marine salutes showing respect for the colors. then I unhook it we fold it and store it away.
That is the procedure that it the other Marine taught me and he is an actual MP with 3 yrs of service. We where both clueless as to what we did wrong
At the end of the day me and the other Marine where punished with negative counseling, and NCO's piggybacked on the incident and gave us their duty for 3 months. the NCO's could not find written instructions, on how to properly do the raising and lowering of the flags. but we where corrected with what they assumed was right.
I'm still in the dark and I need to know how to do this properly without assumptions or else I'm just going to skate out of this procedure as much as I can.