Posted by MoparNorm on Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 10:15:26 :
In Reply to: O.T. Flag ettequette question posted by Tim Holloway on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 at 23:37:42 :
Half Staffing: Foreign Flags
Question: My company has recently added international franchise locations in Canada, Ireland, and the UK. To celebrate this milestone, we installed three new flag poles and purchased corresponding flags for each country. We plan on doing this each time we add a franchise in a new country.
Here's the dilemma. Our corporate office is based in Lansing, Michigan. Under Section 7 of Chapter 1 of Title 4 of the United States Code, 4 USC 7, Governor Granholm, in December 2003, issued a proclamation requiring United States flags to be lowered to half-staff throughout the state of Michigan and on Michigan waters to honor Michigan servicemen and servicewomen killed in the line of duty. We are wondering what the proper etiquette is for lowing the flags of other nations. Is it okay to lower the other flags to half-staff? Should we remove the international flags when the U.S. flag is lowered? Help! We can't find the answer anywhere! Thank you!
Answer: That is a great question and one for which I find no direct answer in The Flag Code. That code is simply silent on that matter. US Army regulations do say that the US Flag is to be half staffed even if other flags are not:
This from army regulation 840. The full regulation is linked from our etiquette page.
"2–4. Position and manner of display
a. Ceremonies and parades.
(4) In accordance with the provisions of section 178, title 36,
United States Code (36 USC 178), when the President directs that
the flag be flown at half-staff at military facilities, naval vessels, and
stations abroad, it will be so flown whether or not the flag of
another nation is full staff alongside the U.S. flag."
The concept here seems to me that if we as a nation are mourning a specific event, other nations are not necessarily also mourning it.
This information indicates that there is some precedence for displaying the US flag at half staff when other flags are at full staff. Army regulations do not apply to civilian use but they provide a logical guide. In practice, I half staff all other flags at my business or I remove them. Anymore, I have taken to simply removing them because I feel it makes for a more poignant statement. At any rate, the public would never never understand seeing other flags at full staff. Everyone would key in on the well known provision of The Flag Code that says no flag should be flown higher than the US flag. Even if you could hang your hat on an identifiable rule of State Department or Army protocol, you would likely spend your day taking irate phone calls from people who would not believe you anyway.
The Flag Code, the only code meant to guide civilian use, does say no flag is to be flown higher that the US flag. It does not offer an exception for this instance. As a civilian installation, you are not bound by the protocol that would guide military or diplomatic use. According to the army regulation above, the US flag on an army base would be half staffed even if the flag of a foreign country along side of it were not.
MN
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