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US Flag Only
If only the US
Flag is on your bike, it should either be at the center, or to
its "marching right" - on the right side of the motorcycle to
the rider's perspective when facing forward.
US Flag And One Other Flag Of Any
Type
If the US Flag is
on your bike with another, it should be to its "marching right"
- on the right side of the motorcycle to the rider's
perspective. If the other flag is that of another nation, it
should be the same size and at the same height of the US Flag -
NO flag should ever be displayed higher than the US Flag.
US Flag And More Than One Other
Non-National Flag
If the US Flag is
on your bike with several other non-national flags (POW/MIA, ALR,
Eagles, Service Banners, etc.) , it should be at center and
higher than any of the other flags.
US Flag And More Than One Flag
Including Those Of Other Nations
If the US Flag is
displayed on your bike with those of any other nation, the flags
should be same size and at the same height, with the US Flag to
marching right (right side of the vehicle), and others arranged
in alphabetical order to the left. Other flags should be
arranged in order of decreasing importance - Nations first,
states (in order of admittance) and territories second, military
third (in order of establishment), and then any others. Again,
no flag should fly higher than the US Flag, but the US Flag
should be no higher than that of any other nation's displayed.
Rationale from the American Legion Riders
Since
the small bike flags we use are all but invisible from the front
(when mounted on the rear), the concept of "Flag's own right"
should be used with the vantage from the rear of the bike. (This
would place the Flag on the on left-hand, rear of your bike).
This concept, unfortunately, overlooks a more applicable
concept.
If you equate the
motion of your bike with marching, and you equate traffic with a
procession, another portion of the Flag Code becomes the obvious
choice for display of the Flag alone, or with another:
Rule 9: "The Flag,
when carried in a procession with another flag or flags, should
be either on the marching right; that is, the Flag's own right,
or, if there is a line of other flags, in front of the center of
that line."
The second portion
of this rule does not work well with most motorcycles, since
there usually is no means to mount the Flag in front (in the
direction of travel) of the others if all flags are to be
mounted at the rear of the bike. In this case, we rely on:
Rule 10: "The Flag
of the United States of America should be at the center and at
the highest point of the group when a number of flags of States
or localities or pennants of societies are grouped and displayed
from staffs." Included in this would be POW/MIA flags and
American Legion Riders flags.
Finally, if you
are displaying another country's flag along with the US Flag,
they both should be at the same height and the same size, and
the US Flag should be displayed on the right side (again,
marching right). This is basically Rule 11: "When flags of two
or more nations are displayed, they are to be flown from
separate staffs of the same height. The flags should be of
approximately equal size. International usage forbids the
display of the flag of one nation above that of another nation
in time of peace. The order of precedence for flags generally is
National flags (US first, then others in alphabetical order in
English), State (host state first, then others in the order of
admission) and territories (Washington DC, Puerto Rico, etc.),
Military (in order of establishment: Army, Marine Corps, Navy,
Air Force, Coast Guard), then other."
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