For many years my colleagues in Scouting and I have mused at the great lack of interest in flag etiquette. We have collected dozens of cases of improper flag display, usually by people who were trying to honor the flag and nation, but who went about it contrary to good taste or the flag code, or both.
A couple of days after President Ford’s death I posted a short reminder of what the flag code calls for, with a photo of a flag flying at half-staff over the White House — a photo taken in 2004, after the death of Ronald Reagan, but the only one I could find at the time. That post is by now, far and away the most popular post on this blog since we started it up last July. For the past few days the number of visits to that post continued to grow.
I don’t know why the post is so popular. I hope people are getting from it a touch of flag etiquette — that would be fitting an proper especially as a result of the funeral of Gerald Ford, supreme nice guy and Eagle Scout. But there it is.
Today I found that the White House had included a photo of the White House flag at half-staff on December 26, 2006, in honor of Gerald Ford. Here it is:
A reminder again: The flag should be hoisted quickly (as always), to the peak of the pole, and then be lowered solemnly to half-mast. When the flag is retired at the end of the day, it should be raised again to the peak, quickly, and then lowered solemnly.
See also:
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
The infomation here on flag etiquette impels me to ask something vaguely related. A story in the Sunday S. F. Chronicle about GM’s close collaboration with the German government in rebuilding that nation’s vital national defense in the 1930s started with the chief of GM European operations standing in front of a mirror to practice his salute for when he met with Hitler.
No kidding. That salute.
But when we’ve recovered from that, I wonder: What are the circumstances, if any, under which an American salutes a foreign head of state or government?
I can imagine a military honor guard assigned to a foreign potentate saluting — or being absolutely forbidden to salute. Frankly, I can’t predict. I do think I can predict, in that case, what kind of salute it would be, and it would not be the foreigner’s.
Anyway, I’m curious. I rather think it would be like giving that salute which consists of dipping the flag, which is to say, NOT. But what is it really, or has the question not been addressed?
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