battlefield-3
When my friend and I try to join a squad together (on PC), I always have to join the squad first. If he joins it first, the squad becomes "locked" and I can no longer join it. This happens even though he is not the squad leader, and even though he has his squads set to "public."
Why is this happening, and how do we fix it?
It's a bug, and not a display bug, there actually is no squad leader in your squad.
I'm not sure, but I think if you leave and then rejoin the squad, it should update. Will have to test next time this bug happens.
If it is a star, then it means that they are the squad leader. If it is an ammo clip or something like that, then that means that this person has a squad perk equipped. 
So, in order on the above picture, we have:
Best Answer
This thread tells me the bug is common. The soloution seems to be for the squad leader to leave the squad and rejoin. It will most likely be addressed in the next patch since this thread is from yesterday. I have no clue why it would only happen when he joins first though. That is very odd.