Monday, August 16, 2021

Flag Etiquette at Sea...

Top of the afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am in Japan right now, where it is Monday.  If you are seeing this blog entry on Sunday, I would like to tell you that Monday is turning out to be a good day.

In international law, national flags fly at the same height.  The implicit message is that no nation is greater than or less than any other nation.  In United States federal law, no flag is allowed to fly above the ensign of the United States.

And yet you just watched my previous blog entry.  There is a flag above the ensign of the United States.  How could this be?

Technically, my initial statement stands.  No flag will fly above the ensign of the United States.  What can fly above the ensign of the United States is certain pennants, and very few of them at that.  The difference is in the number of corners.  A pennant only has three corners.

Which pennants fly above the ensign of the United States?  A ship's commissioning pennant will fly above the ensign.  As well, it is customary to fly a chaplain's pennant above the national ensign when religious services are in progress and are being led by a chaplain (chaplain only, and not a lay leader).

In the video from the previous blog entry, you will note that the pennant flying above the ensign is in the shape of tablets and has Hebrew writing thereupon.  It took eight weeks to get that video.  I was the Jewish chaplain.  The video was taken while I was embarked on USS HOWARD (DDG 83).

R/Chaps

1 comment:

  1. Nice! Are you going to install a flag pole on your house?

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