Joint Armed Forces Color Guard

Joint International Color Guard Protocol

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It’s an issue that has never been formally addressed before and the time has come to take care of the issue and give the US military guidance for all services. That means DoD Instruction 5410.19 Volume 4 needs to be updated. In this article I provide some suggestions for that.

Before We Begin

USAF BHG Color Guard in Germany with French Flag
USAF BHG Color Guard in Germany with French Flag

Each individual service has their guidance for carrying a foreign national flag but it’s never addressed for joint teams. Those service regulations are AR 840-10, MCO 10520.3, and AFI 34-1201. The standard is simply stated: each service color guard can carry a foreign national color for a ceremony that meets all the requirements (the DoD Instruction mentioned above) in the color guard formation.

For the Marine Corps, Navy, and Coast Guard, the usual is to make a separate three-man color guard (2 guards, foreign color bearer), but it’s not mandatory. If you do not have the personnel, you can insert the foreign national bearer in the color guard proper*.

*The color guard proper is the rank with the US flag.

Navy Colors Foreign National Colors
Navy Colors Including Foreign National Colors

Click here to read about Sea Service Flag Protocol

From this information, we can see that inclusion of a foreign national flag in a color guard formation, the color guard proper or a second (even multiple) three-man team, is authorized.

The Scenarios

Scenario 1. An event checks off all the boxes to have a foreign national flag carried by a US service member (that instruction mentioned above has the requirements). But… there is a request to have a foreign service member carry their foreign flag as a part of the color guard.

The Joint Armed Forces Color Guard (US military members only) only carries the US and service departmental colors. There’s nothing that states a foreign national, state, or territory color is authorized, only the Dept colors. However, from the information provided above, we can hypothesize that a foreign national color could be included in the formation. What would be the standard for that foreign national flag?

  1. The foreign military member provides the harness, flag, staff, and finial and positions himself to the left of the US bearer.
  2. The US military unit provides the equipment.

Fringe on the flag would be up to either the situation above. If the formation has the Army present, all flags would have fringe. If the Army is absent, the Marine Corps would then be the senior service, have the standards to follow, and both national colors would not have fringe. If the Navy or Air Force was senior, fringe on both national colors would be the standard.

Joint International Separated Colors
Joint International Separated Colors

Arrival ceremonies for foreign dignitaries here in the US (shown above) requires fringe to not be attached to both the US and foreign flags, regardless of the service standards followed. To read more about this, click here.

While it’s good to know the standards for fringe, above, fringe on the foreign flag would be up to whatever is on hand unless you have time to plan and have all the equipment ready to go.


Scenario 2. A US military member is requested to be part of an international color guard or line of flags. Every ship at sea, installation, and deployed unit should have a complete set of color guard equipment at the ready. When a request for a color guard or even a single color bearer comes up, you have the appropriate equipment.

Wrap Up

International relations are often taken care of at the individual level. Government to government takes place but each man and woman in uniform, especially overseas, is the best representative of their service, the US military and the United States of America. We can also be the worst but hopefully those interactions are very few and far between.

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