1 day Ago By Eugene R. Fidell
-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email It’s anybody’s guess how long Pete Hegseth will be Secretary of Defense, given the wont-go-away controversy over his use of Signal to share details of an impending attack on Houthi forces in Yemen. Maybe he’ll weather that storm. On the chance that he does, I have a bone to pick with him – less cosmic, but something that speaks volumes about his probity and fitness for office.
It's about the flag, “Old Glory.” Americans, most of us anyway, cherish the flag and are proud to display it (preferably the right way rather than inverted, as the U.S.
Code permits , “as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property”). President Nixon seems to have been the first holder of that office to make a practice of wearing the flag as a lapel pin . Indeed, he required White House staffers to do so as well.
The practice caught on, and now it’s nearly de rigueur for politicians to wear it on their attire. In fact, it’s grown so ubiquitous that it has become an empty gesture, the sartorial equivalent of saying “thank you for your service” to anyone who now serves or ever did. Overused, it tends to lose meaning.
Enter Pete Hegseth, who has mastered the “ full MAGA look ,” according to New York Times fashion and style reporter Jacob Gallagher. Mr. Hegseth is clearly into displays, as witness his attention-grabbing tattoos.
But his tattoos are his problem – notable now mostly for the fact that they would very likely prevent him from entering the armed forces if he today sought to enlist. In any caseAlso, they are hidden from view, except when he or others circulate photos of them. More disquieting, given his role as top civilian official in the Defense Department, is the poor example he sets when displaying the flag.
Video taken during his round of pre-confirmation Senate interviews shows him ostentatiously opening his suit jacket to display a garish American-flag lining. Who does this man’s wardrobe? Geez. But at least a suit lining is not on perpetual display.
So let’s talk about his American-flag pocket square. It seems to be a permanent part of his day-to-day dress-for-political-success attire. Who even knew there was such a thing? A quick internet search reveals that flag-motif pocket squares are readily available from a variety of sources.
So what’s wrong? What’s wrong is not merely that section 8(d) of the flag code forbids use of the flag as wearing apparel, as a letter to the editor of the Washington Times pointed out, but, more specifically, that a pocket square is a handerkerchief . And a handkerchief’s purpose, other than as a fashion statement, is to keep things tidy when blowing one’s nose. As a result, Mr.
Hegseth’s pocket square is nothing to sneeze at. Indeed, using the flag as a handkerchief has at least twice led to courts-martial. A hospitalman at the former Naval Hospital in Chelsea, Mass.
, was charged with, among other things, desecrating the flag by blowing his nose on one. His intrepid Yale-educated defense counsel – having precious little to work with — got the flag charge dismissed, arguing that “but for the accident of physiognomy, the accused’s deed would have been protected free speech” (or – as we say in courts-martial – “words to that effect”). Years later, in United States v.
Wilson , the Army Court of Military Review wrote: The appellant, a military policeman (MP), while preparing for a flag-raising detail, complained to his fellow MPs that the Army and the United States “sucked.” Another MP told him that he should move to a communist country if he didn’t like it. The appellant replied, “[t]his is what I think,” and blew his nose on the American flag, leaving on the flag “a small wet circle.
” After another brief exchange of words, the appellant participated without further incident in the flag-raising detail. For his action the appellant was charged with dereliction of duty in that he “willfully failed to ensure that the United States flag was treated with proper respect by blowing his nose on the flag when it was his duty as a military policeman on flag call to safeguard and protect the flag.” Rejecting a First Amendment challenge, the court upheld Private Wilson’s conviction and sentence to four months in the stockade, a bad-conduct discharge, and other penalties.
If Pete Hegseth wants to show how patriotic he is, he might consider displaying a different pocket square. If he wants to set a proper example, he must do so. By Eugene R.
Fidell Eugene R. Fidell served on active duty in the U.S.
Coast Guard from 1969 to 1972. He is of counsel at the Washington, DC firm Feldesman Leifer LLP and has taught Military Justice at Yale Law School since 1993. MORE FROM Eugene R.
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