We lower the flag in honor and respect

It’s done to recognize the death of leaders

and the victims of crime or natural disasters

By Elijah Huhn

Knightly News Reporter

elijah.huhn@mymail@centralpenn.edu

On Dec. 29 last year, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter passed away in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, at 100.

As the 39th president, Carter was best known for the Camp David Accords, which led to the 1979 peace treaty to Israel and Egypt—the first Israel had with an Arab nation—and the creation of the Department of Energy.

His actions after his presidency, including working for human rights and charitable causes, were well received by many, with some people describing his activities after serving in the White House as the greatest in the nation’s history.

He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. The Nobel Committee said Carter was named a Nobel Laureate “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”

Memorial services lasted from Jan. 4 until Jan. 9, when the Carter’s state funeral was held.

The official national mourning period lasted a month, from Dec. 29 to Jan. 29. During that period, flags across the country were lowered to half-staff in many places, including government facilities, grade schools  and high schools, and colleges and universities.

You may have noticed the U.S. and the Pennsylvania flag outside the main entrance to the Advanced Technology Learning Center (ATEC) at half-staff during the mourning period for President Carter.

Gov. Josh Shapiro ordered flags lowered to half-staff on Feb. 22 to mourn and honor West York Police Officer Andrew Duarte, who was shot and killed during a shootout with a hostage-taker at UPMC Memorial Hospital, York. Police shot and killed the shooter. Central Penn put its U.S. and Pennsylvania flags at half staff.

An officer with the Northern York Regional Police Department and the Springettsbury Township Police Department were wounded in the shootout, as were a UPMC doctor, nurse and custodian.

The information below on flag-lowering comes from:

• The National Flag Foundation.
• Title 4 of the U.S. Code.
• Eagle Mountain Flag and Flagpole, a flag-sales business in Wimberly, Texas.

Why we lower the flag

But why do we lower the flag during a mourning period, who makes the decisions of when to lower it and when is it done and for how long?

Lowering the flag is seen as a symbol of mourning, respect, distress or salute.

The flags are usually lowered during mourning in honor of a significant person who has died or mourn the death of multiple people after a tragedy, such as a natural disaster, shooting or terrorist attack.

Lowering flags for mourning dates back to 1612, when a British ship lowered its flag to half-mast after its captain perished while heading to Canada. Scholars believe the flag was lowered to half-mast to make room for the invisible flag of death.

Who decides when to lower the flag?

Government leaders usually decide when to lower a flag. In the United States, the president decides to lower the nation’s flag by issuing an executive order. Under such an order, all government buildings, offices, public schools  and military bases are required to lower their U.S. flag.

If the U.S. flag is lowered, then every flag at these locations must be lowered.

When is it lowered for memorials?

The U.S. Flag Code set standard rules flag-lowering in 1954. The flag is lowered for:

• Thirty days or a month for the death of a sitting or former president.
• Ten days for a current vice president, current speaker of the House of Representatives, or current or retired chief justice of the Supreme Court—on the day the person dies.
• The day after a member of Congress dies.
• From the day of death until interment for other people in notable positions, such as a state governor.

Flags are also lowered for the deaths of other notable figures and victims of tragic events upon presidential proclamation.

The flag can also be lowered on days of remembrance, such as:

• Patriot’s Day—the beginning of the Revolutionary War, and which is a holiday officially recognized by Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Florida.
• Sept. 11 (the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, and which is also called Patriot Day).
• Memorial Day (last Monday in May, until noon).
• Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (Dec. 7, until sunset).

Historical examples

The first instance of the U.S. flag being lowered to half-staff or half-mast aboard U.S. Navy vessels was in December 1799 after the death of the first president, George Washington, who served until 1797.

The first time the flag was lowered for the death of a sitting president after the 1954 rules were standardized, setting the lowering duration at 30 days, was in November 1963, because of the assassination of then-President John F. Kennedy.

Periods during this century when the flag was lowered after the death of a former president are:

• June-July 2004 (Ronald Regan).
• December 2006-January 2007 (Gerald Ford).
• November-December 2018 (George H. W. Bush).
• December 2024-January 2025 (Jimmy Carter).

Rarely, flags are lowered across the nation to mourn the death of a non-U.S. leader  public figure, such as Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September 2022, and when flags were lowered for 12 days.

For a combined 14 days between 2020 and 2022, flags were lowered in remembrance of victims of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lowering the flag is a simple and respectful way to honor people who died and remember them for what they did for the nation or the world, or as a remembrance in a community or nationally of people who were not leaders or well known.

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Comment or story idea? Contact KnightlyEditors@CentralPenn.Edu.

Edited by Knightly News Media Club @ Central Penn co-adviser and editor of this blog Professor Michael Lear-Olimpi.