“Hey, do you know why the Post flag is at half-staff today?”

“Excuse me, but can you tell me why the Post flag is again at half-staff?”

“What’s the deal with the American flag flying at half-staff almost every day now here on Post?”

“Isn’t that weird how we never see the Flag at full-staff anymore.  What’s up with that?”

“Did you see that? This morning the flag was full up, and at lunch it went to half-staff and stayed!  What is going on with the US Flag flying continuously at half-mast for the past year?”

“Who died; does anybody know who died?  I see the flag in mourning, but I haven't heard a word as to why!”

These are some of the constant questions I hear all around me here at Fort Knox of late, as we all watch in dismay to see the National Emblem continuously lowered to a position half-way up the flag pole, where it stays endlessly, and for reasons most of us cannot determine even with the help of the internet to scan for justification.

Here is the Post Flag at Fort Knox, Kentucky yesterday 8 July, at half staff all day, with justification being that the Governor of Kentucky had ordered the State to half-mast for a State Senator who died and for a soldier from Exeter, Maine who was serving with the 101st from Fort Campbell, Kentucky.  So Fort Knox followed the orders of the Governor and there she is, once again at haft mast all day long:

And here is the Post Flag at Fort Knox, KY today, 9 July, full-up in the morning and celebrated by all of us growing numbers of flag-watchers, and then unexplainably lowered to half-mast before lunchtime, where it has remained the rest of the day for reasons I still cannot determine, as no  gubernatorial directive for today is posted and I am on the Governor's notification email list and I get all notifications so far:

OK, so when Senator Robert Byrd died on 28 June, the president ordered all American flags to half-mast until his burial on the 6^th of July, which we did.  But the 8^th and now the 9^th, we’re still at half-staff here at Fort Knox, day after day after day, and it seems like this has been ongoing since March?

Why?  And even if for a good cause (in one of these cases it appears the Governor of Kentucky had ordered all state buildings to lower flags for each day a soldier serving from a KY unit is killed at war), why is the US flag lowered again and again and again these days for names we cannot even mourn because the names do not rise to the level of public awareness, when on our ONE NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING for the 1.3 million American Soldiers killed in American Wars is the only day that I believe has it correct: we place the flag at half-staff for the morning of Memorial Day, and then at noon we shoot Old Glory back up to the full-staff where she remains for the rest of the day!  Not for one Soldier killed does she pine-away the full day; BUT FOR 1.3 million (1,300,000) past soldiers killed during our wars to date.

Why do we now have May 15^th for Peace Officers, July 27^th for Korean War Veterans, September 11^th for 9-11 Patriot Day, December 7^th for Pearl Harbor Day, and a week for West Virginia coal miners and a week for 13 killed soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, and a week for Senator Byrd and a week for Senator Ted Kennedy and Kentucky’s governor ordering his flags to half-staff for 9 soldiers so far this month, when 7 of them list other states as their home of record and have governors there also ordering half-staff rights, and then due to a new Federal Facility Consistency Proclamation by President Bush in June of 2007, all governors’ orders to fly flags from state buildings now requires all federal facilities in that state to follow that governor’s half-staff order?   Why?  Is this madness, to constantly lower the US Flag and keep her there all day long?

My Commanding General is bound by these laws, so he and his Command Sergeant Major here at Knox, follow their orders and the law, but this doesn’t make the practice of lowering our colors all month long palatable or the right thing for this nation, nor for this Federal Military Post and especially not during a time of war and great love, respect and honor to the flag and the American Soldier!

When I die, or any of my soldier brothers and sisters die (like the 1.3 million before us have died in war), we get the honor of an American Flag draped over our casket. That is my honor.  That is what our war heroes of America’s past 235 years of fighting have been offered, and we fight to keep Old Glory proudly lofted upward toward the heavens, JUST LIKE WE DO IT ON MEMORIAL DAY: back up to the top of the pole at noon, as we mourn, and then we honor the American Flag.

I know the governor has ordered the state of Kentucky to drop all US Flags to half mast tomorrow "at all state buildings" for a deceased sergeant who lists his home as Scottsdale, Arizona.  So tomorrow all of Kentucky and Arizona, including all her military bases, will have the Stars and Stripes again at half mast for every single day since 28 June (when Senator Byrd died), excepting only the 4^th and 7^th of July, and now on through the 10^th, with 6 more soldiers (5 from other states) on the Governor’s released list of “Half-Staff projections”, as he awaits the announcement of their burial dates to order all American flags again lowered and on and on the American flag is restrained from fanning the breeze, as she symbolically morns her honored dead.

Again, I am all about morning our fallen Soldiers!  I fully support the flag draped over my coffin and all my fellow soldiers should we be called to offer that “last full measure of devotion” once spoken time-immemorial by President Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg!  But do not honor me at the expense of my beloved Old Glory spanning the breeze high above my draped coffin….for I will have fought and died to keep her raised; not to have her abased and tethered. 

I am calling here for ONE day to honor all Dead: our National Memorial Day on the last Monday in May, just like it used to be by law! 

And when the clock strikes noon, with all the nation knowing why the flag is at half-staff and explaining it clearly to their children…then with 1.3 million valiant dead who did NOT have the Stars and Stripes lowered for their day of interment, will be well remembered and honored as we see Old Glory rise triumphant once again.  And for 364.5 days a year she glows from the top of that flag pole, proudly speaking to us all of each state on that field of 50 stars (Texas claims the one on the top right corner, for our beloved Lone Star State), and each original colony of those 13 broad stripes.

If she must go down to honor a President or a Chief Justice or a Congressman per the Flag Code, then let it be for 3 minutes in the morning…for 30, or 10 or 2 days, as directed, and then after those three minutes of morning, let her rise quickly back to the top and glow with the light of liberty.  Can we change the Flag Code and do this?  Sure we can.

And just in case there are a few nay-sayers out there who do not like my argument about the American Flag being way-too-trampled under-foot these days, and way too, too frequently justified for flying at haft-mast day after day while we are a nation at war, just take a look at the current protocol of the nation of Saudi Arabia and their beloved flag: IT IS NEVER LOWERED, EVER!  No, not even at the United Nations Headquarters here in New York City, even when all other flags of the world are at half-staff, including Old Glory, by order of the United Nations Secretary General.  The Saudis know how to honor a flag. 

Yes, the Stars and Stripes bows below Saudi Arabia, with other nations, while the Saudis have an exception based on religious status as the keeper of the Kabba and the holy relics of a great world religion.  Sounds like a great argument in the making for the flag representing the nation who is the sole keeper of the Statue of Liberty and the US Constitution, which freedoms have revolutionized the world; yes?

We should sit up and take a few lessons here. 

Can we go fifty years back in time where we honor to Old Glory on Memorial Day, and only until noon, and never again have Old Glory on bended knee all day long for anyone, not even our most revered fallen of all: our American Soldiers...all 1.3 million of them who correctly get 1/2 a day at half mast, and only one day a year for ALL OUR DEAD.

 If only we had the leadership the Saudis’ have in international politics and love of country.  Then America would bow all day long to no one....only  take a knee until noon, one day a year and a few days a year she would bow for 3 minutes before she rose again to the lofty breezes from Sea to Shining Sea. 

And the Saudi's would bow with us on that National Day of Morning, or fly no flag at all, on that day.

America bows to no other Nation, but we invite all men and nations to stand with us, as equals.

I strongly welcome and solicit your thoughts and feedback.  Talk to me America, if you are awake and bleed red-white-and-blue in even a tiny vein.  I want your comments and ideas tagged back to me.