Part 4: Half-Staff — When, Why, and How the Flag Is Lowered

Hey there, it’s Kevin again.

You’ve seen it. You’re driving past a government building, a school, a post office, or even a neighbor’s house, and the American flag is only halfway up the pole. Instantly you know something’s wrong. Someone important has died, or the country is marking a tragedy. That lowered position is called half-staff, and it carries real weight.

Here’s everything you need to know about it.

Halfway up the pole means the country is pausing.

Half-staff vs. half-mast

On land, the correct term is half-staff. Ships and naval vessels use masts, so at sea it’s half-mast. In everyday conversation most people mix the two, but the Flag Code uses “half-staff.”

Who can order it

Only a few people have the authority to order the U.S. flag to half-staff:

• The President of the United States (nationwide, including federal buildings, military installations, and U.S. facilities overseas)
• State governors (within their own state)
• The Mayor of the District of Columbia (for D.C.)

Mayors of regular cities, school principals, business owners, and private citizens do not have the authority to order the national flag to half-staff. They can lower their own organizational or state flags if they want, but the U.S. flag itself is different. When people lower it without proper authority, it dilutes the meaning.

How long it stays down

The Flag Code sets specific periods for certain deaths:

• 30 days from the death of a President or former President
• 10 days for the Vice President, the Chief Justice (or a retired Chief Justice), or the Speaker of the House
• From the day of death until interment for an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, a Cabinet secretary, a former Vice President, or a state governor
• The day of death and the following day for a Member of Congress

Governors can also order the flag lowered for the death of a current or former state official, or for a service member from that state who dies on active duty. The President can issue proclamations for other situations — national tragedies, foreign dignitaries, or other significant losses — and those orders set the duration.

Special days

On Memorial Day the flag is flown at half-staff from sunrise until noon, then raised to full staff for the rest of the day. That’s deliberate — mourning in the morning, then a return to full pride in the afternoon. Peace Officers Memorial Day (May 15) is another standing half-staff day, unless it falls on Armed Forces Day.

How to do it correctly

This part gets missed a lot. You don’t just stop the flag halfway up. The proper way is:

1. Raise the flag briskly all the way to the peak (the top) for a moment.
2. Then lower it slowly and ceremoniously to the half-staff position (halfway between the top and bottom of the pole).
3. At the end of the day, raise it back to the peak again before lowering it completely.

The flag salutes the top of the pole before it mourns. That small detail matters.

Common mistakes

• Leaving the flag at half-staff for days or weeks with no official order
• Lowering it for local events or personal reasons without authority
• Never raising it to the peak first
• Flying other flags above the U.S. flag while it’s at half-staff (nothing flies above the national colors)
• Forgetting to raise it back to full staff when the mourning period ends

Private citizens are not legally required to follow half-staff orders the way federal and state buildings are. The Flag Code is guidance more than enforceable law for individuals. Still, most people who fly the flag regularly choose to follow the proclamations out of respect.

You’ve seen it on the drive to work. That lowered flag is meant to mean something.

Half-staff is one of the clearest visual signals we have as a country. It says we are pausing. We are acknowledging loss. When it’s used the right way, for the right reasons, and for the right amount of time, it still carries power.

Next time we’ll dig into something a lot of people get wrong: the difference between the Flag Code and actual law — and what that means for how the flag is treated in everyday life.

Thanks for reading.

Kevin Laughrin
Medically retired LSSN, VFA-103 “The Jolly Rogers”
Marketing and Communications Director
www.veteranvalorcoffee.com