Half-Staffing Foreign Flags with the US Flag

Question: My company has recently added international franchise locations in Canada, Ireland, and the UK. To celebrate this milestone, we installed three new flag poles and purchased corresponding flags for each country. We plan on doing this each time we add a franchise in a new country. Here's the dilemma. Our corporate office is based in Lansing, Michigan. Under Section 7 of Chapter 1 of Title 4 of the United States Code, 4 USC 7, Governor Granholm, in December 2003, issued a proclamation requiring United States flags to be lowered to half-staff throughout the state of Michigan and on Michigan waters to honor Michigan servicemen and servicewomen killed in the line of duty. We are wondering what the proper etiquette is for lowing the flags of other nations. Is it okay to lower the other flags to half-staff? Should we remove the international flags when the U.S. flag is lowered? Help! We can't find the answer anywhere! Thank you! Answer: That is a great question and one for which I find no direct answer in The Flag Code. That code is simply silent on that matter. US Army regulations do say that the US Flag is to be half staffed even if other flags are not: This from army regulation 840. The full regulation is linked from our etiquette page. "2–4. Position and manner of display a. Ceremonies and parades. (4) In accordance with the provisions of section 178, title 36, United States Code (36 USC 178), when the President directs that the flag be flown at half-staff at military facilities, naval vessels, and stations abroad, it will be so flown whether or not the flag of another nation is full staff alongside the U.S. flag." The Air Force does it the same way: According to Air Force Instruction 34-1201 2.13.4. All flags displayed with the flag of the United States should be flown at half-staff when the flag of the United States is flown at half-staff with the exception of foreign national flags 2.10.4. When flags of states, cities, or localities, or pennants of societies are flown on the same halyard with the flag of the United States, the flag of the United States should always be at the peak. When the flags are flown from adjacent staffs, the flag of the United States should be hoisted first and lowered last. No flag or pennant may be placed above the flag of the United States. /The only exception is when the flag of the United States is flown at half-staff for an official observance, foreign national flags may be above the flag of the United States./ AFI34-1201 4 OCTOBER 2006 19 2.13.3. The flag shall be flown at half-staff outside the United States on DoD buildings, grounds, and naval vessels even if another nation’s flag is flown full-staff next to the flag of the United States. The concept here seems to me that if we as a nation are mourning a specific event, other nations are not necessarily also mourning it. This information indicates that there is some precedence for displaying the US flag at half staff when other flags are at full staff. Military regulations do not apply to civilian use but they provide a logical guide. In practice, I half staff all other flags at my business or I remove them. Anymore, I have taken to simply removing them because I feel it makes for a more poignant statement. At any rate, the public would never never understand seeing other flags at full staff. Everyone would key in on the well known provision of The Flag Code that says no flag should be flown higher than the US flag. Even if you could hang your hat on an identifiable rule of State Department or Army protocol, you would likely spend your day taking irate phone calls from people who would not believe you anyway. The Flag Code, the only code meant to guide civilian use, does say no flag is to be flown higher that the US flag. It does not offer an exception for this instance. As a civilian installation, you are not bound by the protocol that would guide military or diplomatic use. According to the army regulation above, the US flag on an army base would be half staffed even if the flag of a foreign country along side of it were not. There is one further component at work here. Every state has its own flag laws and your state's attorney general's office has jurisdiction over them. It would be a fair question to ask your state government. Please let me know if it responds to you.