Ever wonder why that flag is at half-staff? Our columnist answers your questions

By BEN OLSON/For The Herald — Any time I see a flag at half-staff, I take notice.

I check comprehensive news roundups on my computer every morning before I leave the house, so usually I can surmise the reason. Not always, though. What really scrambles my mind is when the flag at the school is at half-staff and the one at the post office isn’t.

Before we go any farther, my editor bows to the whims of the AP Stylebook, which prefers the term “half-staff.” Most dictionaries prefer “half-mast.” Interestingly, almost all White House press releases use the term half-mast. Nonetheless, lowering the flag is an official way of honoring a prominent citizen who recently died. But not always recently.

There are four days of the year when the flag is always flown at half-staff from sunrise until sunset. Those days are Peace Officers Memorial Day, May 15, Patriot Day, September 11, National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, December 7 and the second Sunday in October, which falls during Fire Prevention Week. On the last Monday in May, Memorial Day, the flag is to be at half-staff from sunrise until noon, then raised to the top of the pole.

The flag will also be flown at half-staff upon reliable information that a current or former U.S. president, current vice president, current or former chief justice or current speaker of the House has died. The president or the governor of a state can also issue a proclamation to lower the flag. The flag shall be flown at half-staff for 30 days from the death of a president or former president, 10 days from the day of death of a vice president, chief justice or retired chief justice and also the speaker of the House. The flag will be lowered from the day of death until interment for U.S. Supreme Court associate justices, the secretary of an executive or military department, a former vice president or a governor of any state, territory or possession. If you’re a member of Congress, the flag will be lowered on the day of your death, and the next day, as well.

The proper way to bring your flag to half-staff is to first raise it to the top of the pole, and then lower it back to the halfway mark. Upon retiring the flag at the end of the day, the flag is raised to the top again, and then lowered. Half-staffing the flag is done on a voluntary basis by private citizens. Governors are restricted to calling for half-staffing only for the death of a state official or active members of the armed services from that state. Mayors have no authority to call for the flag to be lowered.

There are only two places where the U.S. flag is never at half-staff. One is the battlefield, and the other is the moon.