"not planting a flag after having just survived a battle.
Shame on John Wayne for filming "The Sands of Iwo Jima" et al. With that kind of thinking, every war movie in which the flag is destroyed, torn, ripped apart or otherwise "desecrated" is offensive? It's a movie for crying out loud. And yes, I can say this as a former Naval officer myself, whose father and grandfather also served and were wounded (grandfather in WWII) in the Army defending that glorious flag.
I think you're missing my point.
Cameron is not reenacting an actual battle or incident where the flag was "destroyed, torn, ripped apart or otherwise 'desecrated' ", he's just walking down the street, as it were. Cameron is carrying the flag for effect ... nothing more, nothing less. My (minor) point was that it would have been nice had he carried it with a bit more respect.
As far as U.S. military lineage goes ... mine flows contiguously back to George Washington on his mother's side. Not sure what that has to do with the price of tea in China.