In the movie, Blackhawk Down, most of the soldiers had the American
flag insignia on their uniform sewn on backwards.  The stars are in
the upper right hand corner.  I've noticed that our soldiers in
Afghanistan also have the flags sewn on backwards.  Why?

Hi, 

"The flag decals have the union (the blue area with the stars) on the
side closer to the front of the plane. On the plane's left, the decal
shows the flag with the union at the left, as usual. On the plane's
right side, the union is on the right. This is done so that the flag
looks as if it is blowing in the wind created by the forward movement
of the ship or airplane. You can see this on cars and trucks as well.
Click to see pictures of the flag decals on Air Force 1. There are two
separate flag patches in the Army inventory: the normal U.S. flag
replica that is worn on the left sleeve, and what is referred to as
the "reversed field" flag patch, which is worn on the right sleeve."

Referance from :

Flag Rules and Regulations
http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagetiq.html

Thanks, 

webadept-ga

I received an answer within an hour of my question.  Very helpful and
now I can rest and explain it to others who have wondered the same
thing.  Thank you.

I was going to put a comment on here warning that this is a duplicate
question, but appears that webadept and I answered the two instances
of the question at exactly the same time.

Just a thought that might help in understanding the orientation of
flags:

There is no "backwards" when it comes to flags because there is no
"right" or "left" either.  The pattern on a (proper) flag goes right
through from one side of the material to the other, so that - in
general - the two sides of a flag look different, being enantiomorphs
(left-right reversals) of one another.  So what is on the left for one
viewer is on the right for someone viewing from the other side of the
flag - or even for the original viewer when the wind changes
direction.

Instead, the two sides of a flag are the "hoist" - the side attached
to the flagpole - and the "fly" - the opposite side.  The stars on the
US flag are at the top on the hoist side of the flag; whether this is
on the left or right depends on where the flag is, which way the wind
is blowing (or the flag is moving) and where you are looking at it
from.

Hope this helps.

Carnegie.