Sundown January 25 marks the end of the 30-day period of mourning for President Gerald Ford, during which flags in the United States are flown at half-staff.
Flags retired at sundown should be quickly hoisted to the peak of the staff, and then lowered soberly. If a flag is lighted or otherwise authorized for 24-hour display, it should be hoisted back to the peak of the staff at sundown.
Tomorrow, January 26, flags should be posted at full staff, as usual.
- Image: U.S. flag flying at Gerald Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery, near Albany, New York; www.albanyaerialphotos.com
See also:
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
[…] Original post by Ed Darrell […]
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Mr. Patton, I am unaware of any site that provides such a service. For President Ford, for example, the news was announced in a White House proclamation — one could check the White House site for such postings regularly, but it’s easy to miss one.
You raise a great point. There are 19 or 20 dates on which flags are requested to be flown (if they are not flown every day), and on at least one of those occasions the flags fly at half-staff for part of the day in honor of veterans.
I’ll try to get that information together in one post — and of course, you’re free to take the feed from this blog, where I’ll try to keep up on when flags should be flown half-staff.
Generally, any time a president or ex-president dies, or a Supreme Court justice dies, there will be a period of official mourning marked by lowered flags. The White House will generally issue the proclamations.
State flags may be flown at half-staff on other occasions. Here in Dallas the Dallas Morning News flies their Texas flag at half staff any time an employee or ex-employee dies.
One must be alert!
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What websites are devoted to telling us when the flag should be at half mast. I have a business with a large flag that needs to be at the right postion at all times.
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Thank you! My friend and I were trying to figure out why the flags were still at half staff… you very neatly cleared that up.
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