Two Embroiderers Quickly Create Flag for Army's Western Hemisphere Command

The flag symbolizing the Army's new U.S. Army Western Hemisphere Command was made in two weeks by two embroiderers assigned to Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, just in time for an activation ceremony held Dec. 5 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

DLA Troop Support's Clothing and Textiles supply chain has a unique team of 13 embroiderers in its flag room, where Embroidery Digitizer Machine Operator Cindy Chong and Sewing Machine Operator Nancy Chhim made the first West-Hemcom flag.

"It's nice to be a part of something brand new like this, being a tiny part of this reorganization effort for the Army," Chong said. "Design-wise, there's something appealing about the simplicity of the eagle head on the globe, which is emphasizing the Army joining together for this one command."

West-Hemcom unifies the former U.S. Army Forces Command, U.S. Army North and U.S. Army South into a single, four-star operational headquarters.

DLA coordinated the expedited order with representatives from the former Forces Command, who created the flag design with The Institute of Heraldry, as well as from the Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command's Clothing and Heraldry directorate, said Flag Room Supervisor Adam Walstrum.

Chong and Walstrum highlighted the collaboration among their team, Tacom and The Institute of Heraldry in meeting this requirement.

"The coordination is important in order to turn this around in two weeks," Walstrum said. "It's definitely a big part of the support we provide that we're right at the source, so we can work with [The Institute of Heraldry] and get the approval to manufacture pretty quickly."

From an embroidery perspective, the design is standard for Army organization flags - the command's insignia and a designation scroll with the name "Western Hemisphere Command" below it, Walstrum said.

"The flag starts with the insignia device, the eagle and the globe being digitized and machine embroidered by Cindy - front and back - on an unfinished flag base," Walstrum said.

Then the flag went to Chhim for completion, which included sizing the flag, adding fringe and applying the pre-embroidered scrolls.

"Both of them have the unique challenge like most flags, where things need to be as illustrated on both sides, so that everything is exactly as the drawing is, left to right, everything reads correctly on both the front and back sides," Walstrum explained.

This first West-Hemcom flag will likely be one of the few based on Army regulations, Walstrum said.

"Component command flags are not mass produced," he added. "The limited manufacturing authorization makes these colors even more unique to each command."