You may have come across this situation: You receive a call from a local organization asking for your color guard to post the colors at an event. What throws a bit of a wrench into the request is that the event coordinator wants you to post their colors. They have flags and stands and have dreamed up a big production with your team bringing in their colors.
Don’t.
US military and cadet color guards cannot carry ANY OTHER FLAGS except what is outlined in your regs. In general that means only the US, (state, city, county – Army and USAF only), and military departmental and organizational flags. The purple heart group’s flag or the POW flag, anything like that, you cannot carry. These flags are not authorized in a military color guard.
For First responder color guards, I would use the exact same restrictions. You wear a uniform, represent that civil service, and nothing else.
The “Show-N-Go”.
Posting colors should be reserved for very special occasions. Retrieving the colors should be for extremely formal occasions only. Once you post the colors for a volleyball game, posting has lost its significance even though there’s nothing wrong with a volleyball game. Just present the colors, don’t post.
Formally presenting a second set of colors should be your team’s standard for the majority of colors details requests you receive.
We will use two categories for posting the colors. Above, we fully developed External Posting except for the number of colors to post. External would be for an organization outside of yours.
Internal Posting would be for your organization with few, if any, outsiders.
A note on posting: Bringing in two flags (for example) with other flags already posted is not the best situation. It’s not unheard of, but not the best thing to do. However, there is one caveat to this: Personal colors, General’s/Admiral’s and Senior Executive Office flags, are not carried and posted.
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I have a question and have looked through every Reg I can think of. The State is holding a Bi-Centennial parade and would like to have a joint color guard with Active Army, National Guard and the Civil Air Patrol carrying their flag. Can this group be mixed in this way?
Thanks
Ms. Mitchell,
Nothing prohibits cadet organizations from marching with Active Duty, National Guard, or Reserve color bearers, however, all military drill and ceremonies and protocol manuals state specifically what is authorized and that is only members of the US military. I would not mix.