Flag Folding

[Shooter]

Hi all, my name is shooter and I'm new at this and looking for a little help. I'm a life member of our local VFW and was recently asked to be on the honor guard and burial detail and asked if I knew how to fold the flag. I jumped at the chance and stated I did know how to fold the flag except for one small detail. At the final fold and tuck I always end up with a tad bit of red showing at the right corner. I have tried droping the first horizontal fold (blue field) down about an inch from the top edge and continuing from there, tried keeping both edges even, keeping the flag tighter in the process all to no avail. Can anybody help me out here. Incidentally, the flags are all regulation casket flags. Thanks for the help.

[dpd4333]

Maybe try making the first fold over a little bigger. If none of that works, you may want to look at the flag they are using. Is is a standard U.S. Flag?

[cwsullivan]

have the honor guard member on the side of the open fold tuck the in between the blue while keeping it tight. this should help

[flagnazi]

Shooter: As a member of the AF Reserve Honor Guard, we were taught to create a "witches hat" on the first fold. That is, bringing the red stripe at the union end so that there is one spike of the star showing, the person at the stripe end will bring it to half of the red stripe. The second fold then comes to equal the first. The 3rd fold, which is your first triangular fold then comes to the edge of the red stripe thus as you continue your folds and get into the union the red will be covered because of your first fold and the "witches hat". We also usually know that as the fold enters the union that if we have the point of the triangle falling between the first and second star that we will have enough to tuck at the end. Also know that if you feel the fold is not going well, that anyone may call refold and you unfold the flag and refold until you get it right. Even though all funeral flags are supposed to be 5 ft by 9.5 ft that sometimes they don't fall perfect-I had one the other day that did not. Also sometimes on our second triangular fold we "cut" the white stripe in half so that the fold will fall between the first and second star in the union. What is always helpful is to have a funeral flag that you keep for practice. Another thing that really helps is keeping the flag taught, which is the responsibility of the person on the union end. Hope this helps.