Claim: President Obama had a Marine staff sergeant relieved for pointing out that his U.S. flag lapel pin was upside-down.
Example: [Collected via e-mail, May 2012]
A few weeks ago a young female Marine Staff Sergeant (one of very few chosen for this post) was serving with
A few weeks ago she was assigned to the flight crew and after giving our illustrious President her best "Main Gater" hand salute, she respectfully advised the President that the American flag pin on his lapel was on upside down, you got to remember this young lady has been around for a while and had just finished her tour as a Drill Instructor, I have no doubt that she advised him in the proper way.... do you?? Anyway, President Obama relieved her on the spot. Apparently he doesn't like being told that he doing something wrong, especially by lowly military personnel... WTF. That asshole just ruined a young lady's career when all she was trying to do was prevent him from being embarrassed.... what a gem. This info comes from a very, very reliable source who has the "inside" scoop on the Marine Detachment at
Note: He was put to task for not having an American flag on his lapel, so now he displays it upside down to show his Muslim Brotherhood and Muslim friends that he is
Origins: This tale about a Marine Helicopter Squadron One
We contacted the U.S. Marine Corps about the rumor, and here is what the media officer tasked with handling our query reported back to us:
I forwarded the representatives the copy of the story you sent in your initial inquiry and I was told that no Staff Sergeants have been relieved or fired at
I spoke with representatives from
As to the folkloric aspects of the tale, at one time flying the flag upside-down was a recognized distress signal, thus there's a bit of secondary meaning to any story involving a U.S. flag depicted in such manner.
At least in the realm of rumor, political officeholders and aspirants are often put down via tales or faked photos of their holding ordinary objects upside-down (e.g.; the Photoshopped photos of Barack Obama holding a landline telephone receiver and
in an unusable manner (e.g., photos of Bill Clinton and
A number of stories position Barack Obama as an
The "dismissed Marine who pointed out the upside-down flag pin" tale somewhat finds its counterpart in the
Contemporary lore allows the underling his victories too, though, as the legend about the overbearing boss who fires an employee who appears to be slacking off only to discover after he's paid the lad his severance that the loafer didn't work for him.
Barbara "penny'd loafer" Mikkelson
Last updated: 4 April 2015