Feelings on displaying the Confederate flag on your POV or person while on a military installation?

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it

If wearing a "STARS & BARS FLAG SHIRT" and an NC State Flag on your truck (in combination) gets you "LAID"...what's wrong with that?

Hello Fellow Rally Pointers...
I grew up in California...a State since 1850 that was on the Winning Side of the American Civil War. I was ignorant of the underlying causes of the war except to know it ended slavery in the United States of America.

After my commissioning in 1980 I started to clear up some of my ignorance by reading "Lee's Lieutenants" by Douglas Southall Freeman...three volumes published from 1942 to 1946. Freeman had access in some cases to survivors of the War as well as primary and secondary sources. His work pioneers historical research based on eyewitness accounts that were written down by participants themselves.

Before 1860 the first challenge to the SUPREMACY of the U.S. Constitution took place in DEC 1832...over tariffs...South Carolina passed an "Annulment Act" to disallow collection of tariff revenues from Charleston. They did not like the Tariff that Congress wrote, and that President Jackson "Signed". In response to the SC Legislature, President Jackson asked CONGRESS to authorize the use of force to collect the Tariffs from Charleston. Congress passed the "FORCE ACT" authorizing the use of FEDERAL TROOPS to enforce the Tariff of 1832 in Charleston.

SC attempted enlist GA, NC and VA to join them in "Annulment"...Virginia ignored the offer; GA never got around to making a response...NC thought about it until President Jackson asked them, "You want all of those Cherokee to come back from Oklahoma?"

As Federal Troops took the road to Charleston, the SC Legislature rescinded the "Annulment Act" and then voted to annul the "FORCE ACT"...and there history holds its breath for 28 years.

The Confederates believed in something about Southern State's Rights...preservation of slavery was one of those "Rights" that were threatened with infringement because expansion of the Country meant slave-states would eventually be unable to preserve the Institution of Slavery in the Federal Government...also, recall that New York, Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland were "SLAVE STATES" who joined the Union against the South because preservation of the UNION was paramount in their allegiance to the USA.

The Union utterly destroyed the Confederate States because TOTAL WAR was applied to their sovereign territories; was it worth it?

Today the magnitude of the struggle from 1860-1865 to PRESERVE the UNION can be guessed at by visiting Battlefield Monuments...go the Chattanooga Battlefields...massive granite monuments for the Union and Confederate Regiments are there to mark the passing of men, horses and armaments.

Go to the Shiloh Battlefield in Tennessee...24,000 men became casualties in two days of toe-to-toe slaughter. Look at the graves marked "UNKNOWN"...what did that man die for?

680,000 Americans died in that war...380,000 on the Union side...50% of every death was a "Camp Death"...not from combat but from living out in the open...respiratory illnesses and camp fevers.

What does a statue of Robert E. Lee, Jeff. Davis, P.G.T. Beauregard and George Pickett mean to me? They beg to be studied. Did their own psychological attachment to an economic system based on slavery make any sense in the 21st Century? What did mid-19th Century men consider their inalienable rights?

They all participated in the Mexican American War which defeated the Mexican Army and annexed vast parts of North America for the USA. It was a "LAND GRAB" at the expense of Mexico...and in defense of President Polk, I would say that the Mexicans didn't have very big plans in first place...so, better for the USA. Taking Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California away from Mexico was a better deal for Americans. Americans had plans to tie the country together with railroads and settlement...the Mexicans did not share the same vision.

In defense of Mexico, they were oppressed by the Spanish and a certain church from 1521 to 1821...colonial administration left the population at 97% illiteracy...a real handicap for a group of people suddenly expected to govern themselves without a single legacy institution like the "House of Burgess of Virginia" to build upon. It took Mexico from 1821 to 1880 to have a balanced budget under Porfirio Diaz, Dictator from 1880 to 1910. Hardly a democracy in being. The lesson is that a population with a liberal education is better equipped to determine their own future...otherwise ignorant mob behavior is the best you can expect...just look at the ANTIFA losers in the news today.

So why did the US Army Lieutenants of 1845-1846 decide to partition the "Whole Country" as CSA Army Generals of 1860-1865 into separate parts...Free and Slave parts?

Flags carry meaning. The United States of America Flag is posted on the MOON...it is there because a Country named United States of America put it there. Our Flag carries meaning for every person on Planet Earth...our enemies despise and fear us; our Country men and women see it for their own experiences...around the world that Flag evokes an emotion no matter where it is seen...Americans are special...we are non-conformists...the Flag carries that message.

The "Stars & Bars" represent the Army of Northern Virginia...the striking arm of the Confederacy that forged its own winning record...a shield of men, horses and armaments that protected Richmond, Virginia all the way to APR 1865. Under Robert E. Lee the "Army of Northern Virginia" defeated half a dozen Union Generals for four and a half long and bloody years. In the end the Union applied a policy of "Total War" against the CSA...General Grant applied attrition warfare against the Army of Northern Virginia to the point that resistance collapsed for lack of men, horses and armaments...the Peace between Lincoln and Grant was interrupted with the Johnson Administration...an unexpected break in policy continuity that didn't help anyone.

When I was in high school the "Stars & Bars" were used as sort of an infantile symbol of defiance...like when you decide you are going to drink beer before you are of legal age, all the way through high school...something silly...the "Stars & Bars" evoked a feeling of "futile act of defiance". As a symbol of repression or denying someone their Constitutional Rights? Not really. The Ku Klux Klan makes that message clear...not the Stars & Bars.

I recently found a newspaper obituary from 1900 that mentions a distant relative...George Hearn of Arkansas, who joined the 33rd Georgia Regiment, CSA. What moved this ancestor to join arms against the UNION? It deserves more research. Did he own slaves? I don't know, yet.

From my grandmother (1907 to 2010) I learned that Union Guerillas tortured my Great-Great Grandfather Johnson to give up the location of valuables and livestock by burning his feet in a fire. I would guess he did not take a loyalty oath during RECONSTRUCTION. My family roots in Arkansas and North Carolina were Southern Sympathizers...the question is, "Why?" The way we see news reporting today, population segments can be overly influenced in the absence of multiple information sources. We see this all the time in the "Shock Entertainment Industry Media" (Left-Wing Journalism) and what I accept as "more balanced"...Conservative News Outlets...so what sort of news shaped their attitudes and opinions to support the Southern Cause? I assume they were literate...planters...had access to at least ONE NEWSPAPER in the wilderness farms of Arkansas in the 1850s.

I don't display the Stars & Bars because I have no emotional connection with the symbol. I recognize that there were Brave Americans living between 1860 to 1865 who chose to fight and die believing in their purpose under that FLAG. So I don't ban the Stars & Bars because it would shut down introspection...inquiry...as to what motivates brothers and sisters with a common political heritage to kill each other in fighting that was "Hand to Hand" at times. In the end, slavery was abolished and the Confederacy burned to ashes...was there an alternate way to avoid the bloodshed?

My experience with the confederate flag really began in 1971, when upon after enlisting in USAF, I was to Lackland AFB for training. Being in Texas, I saw alot of Confederate flags. On and off base, on cars, trucks, belt buckles, etc. Being a New York raised teen, I didn't feel intiminated or threaten. After BMT, came tech school in Illionois. More Confederate flags on base, not so many in town. Then came my first duty assignment to Udon RTAFB, Thailand., my assignment was in Det.1, 56SOW. The AGE shop had a break table (hand made, picnic type) with the top painted with a Confederate flag on it. 99% of the 10 of us were southern born raised or sympathectic. Talk about : the sole yankee in the deep south! I made myself clear, that the battle flag of the south, didn't make me feel uncomfortable, angry or out of place. We all got along fine. After my tour came LittleRock AFB, Arkansas. I felt like the assignments God in D.C., was a southerner! No problem there either. Five years there, a BOP for Hurlburt Field, FL, back to Special Operations and deeeeeeepp in the heart of Dixie. Confederate flags on the flag poles everywhere! The base even had the old flag of Florida, with the Confederate half flag flying. Tours in Germany, Japan, TDYs to Saudi Arabia, Korea and numerous other countries and the stars and bars of the south followed me. Finally my last duty station would land me in Holloman AFB, NM. Not many stars and bars there, but still there were many to be seen. Was offended by seeing them everywhere I was based? NO. I remember a race relations class in Arkansas, with a black instructor. He played high school football in Louisiana and had a white team mate who had sewen a confederate flag on his team jersey. Their team was playing another state's school that was up north. This teenager became really concerned about showing the stars and bars at that game. The instructor told him, that flag he worn was colored red, white and blue. Just like the American flag. He was a southern American and should stand proud as one. I agree. If you weren't born in the USA, but became a citizen, and you xsewed on your homland's flag or fly from the mirror of your car, along with the American flag. Be proud, you're an American now. Okay haters come at me

Many of my ancestors fought for the Confederacy (and many more for the Union). I personally am not offended by the flag, but I understand that many folks are. I wouldn't have an issue with display of the Confederate flag on or off post. To me, the Confederate flag is a symbol of history, a symbol of family, a symbol of home. Now, some folks have used the flag in a racist way--I denounce those actions.

It is distinctly unprofessional, provocative, and political as all hell.

One way or the other, that treasonous and racist nonsense has no business in the military or on any installation.

The rebel flag is just a rebel flag, shows wild character, just like a Texas or New York flag . But I do question seeing all those flags flying from different countries, if the s--- hit the fan, what flag do they follow

If you’re going to ban one flag ban everyone that’s not the US flag.

First of all, that is not the Confederate flag, that's the Confederate Battle Flag. I'm an old soldier who fought in Vietnam, anytime I would see that flag I really thought nothing of it back then, just some Southern Boys showing their pride in where they came from. It never diminished their pride in America or their sense of Duty or their willingness to engage the enemy. In my opinion it still doesn't! I find people kneeling when our national anthem is played and Our Stars and Stripes displayed as more offensive! But that's my opinion.

I own a Confederate flag, was not born in the U.S., am a legal immigrant who identifies as an American, but I know true history of civil war. And, for those who are offended by a flag, or a statue, of something that actually occurred in the history of this country, are those that only know what the media and others tell them, instead of researching facts. Most in the South, who own the flag, to include black Americans, do so to show pride in where they live and were born. But, because of weak politically correct minded individuals who are trying to erase history, as if it didn't happen, are offended by something that most know absolutely nothing about.