It was for the “Run for the Fallen,” to the Healing Field Memorial at Patriot Park in Cathedral City, California, sponsored by the Cathedral City Rotary Club and Cathedral City.

The “run” was a motorcycle parade, lead by motorcyclists bearing four American flags in honor of four local soldiers who had fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There is a wealth of information about how to carry the flags in a parade, but when the flags are borne by motorcycle riders, extra care must be taken, and the members of these motorcycle riding clubs wanted to make sure they carried these flags of honor properly.

The Run for the Fallen motorcycle procession was held by a consortium of local motorcycle riding clubs, with riders on 175 motorcycles from The American Legion Riders of Palm Springs, the Desert Riders Association, and the Palm Springs Harley Owners Group.

The riding clubs carried the four U.S. flags in honor of SPC Jason Chappell, 1st Lt. Joshua M. Palmer,       PFC Ming Sun, and Corporal Jesus Gonzales, who were from the area in and around Cathedral City.

During the Healing Field Memorial, the 4,248 names of American service men and women were read. The National Anthem was sung by legendary band leader Buddy Greco and his wife, Lezlie Anders.

The Cathedral City High School Symphonic Band, and the United States Marine Corps Band from the Air Ground Combat Center in Twenty-nine Palms performed.

Guest speaker was Gunnery Sgt. Christopher W. Cox, U.S. Marine Corps.

More photographs can be seen at The Desert Riders Association website.

U.S. Air Force flag manual (91 pages PDF)

U.S. Marine Corps flag manual (71 pages PDF)

U.S. Army flag manual (82 pages PDF)

U.S. Navy flag manual (106 pages PDF).

U.S. Coast Guard uses the Navy’s NTP 13 (B) with this additional material.

Nautical flag etiquette and protocol for civilians is addressed by the U.S. Power Squadrons, and may be found in detail here. Maritime or nautical etiquette can be quite different from ordinary civilian flag code, so this is so interesting for those of us who are land-locked.

If I have made any egregious errors with this material, don’t fuss and fume about it, but please, drop me a note.