Thin Red Line Firefighter Right Shoulder Patch

The star field sits in the upper right on purpose: this is the reversed flag, made for the right sleeve so the stars lead and the stripes trail as the wearer moves. Army uniform regulation AR 670-1 asks for exactly that effect, a flag that looks like it is flying in the breeze as the soldier goes forward. Fire and police uniforms follow the same convention. The idea goes back to Civil War flag bearers, who carried the colors into the fight with the stars at the staff and the stripes streaming behind. On this one the whole flag has been drained to gray and black except a single red stripe.

The phrase itself is older than any fire department flag. It comes from the 93rd Highlanders at Balaclava in the Crimea in October 1854, a line of red coats that held against Russian cavalry. The American fire service version came after the thin blue line flag made for law enforcement, and other first responder colors followed it: white for EMS, gold for dispatch, gray for corrections. In a FireRescue1 survey of nearly 2,000 firefighters, 88 percent said they support the flag, and most of them said it was about honoring firefighters killed or injured on the job. It hangs inside stations and rides on fire apparatus.

The patch is a rectangle 3.5 inches wide by 2 inches tall with a black merrowed edge. Gray stripes alternate with black ones, and the star field is gray stars stitched on black in the upper right corner. One red stripe runs the full width of the flag just below the star field. There is no lettering anywhere on it. The backing is iron-on, and it sews on just as well if you want it to stay through a lot of washes.

For people in the fire service the red stripe means the crew, career and volunteer alike, and the members a department has lost. It shows up on station memorial walls, on the back windows of firefighters' trucks and on the gear bags that ride to every shift. The subdued colors keep it in line with a uniform sleeve, which is where the reversed layout was meant to go. Families of firefighters wear it too, often for one person in particular.

Put it on the right sleeve of a duty shirt or jacket, on a gear bag, or in a shadow box next to a helmet front and a department patch. It also makes a good gift for a firefighter at a promotion or a retirement dinner. One stripe of red on a gray flag.