There’s no text with this pic – I’m assuming this is for Gerald Ford, who died yesterday.

Yes. For those with a technical interest, we posted the reference last night on the LAFD Blog.

Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department

Unless that flag’s on a ship or naval station, I think it’s at half-staff.

Yeah I read that on wikipedia… but I’ve always called it half-mast, and will continue to do so.

=]

half-staff.

flags are only at half-mast on ships.

Hmm according to wikipedia:

“The terms half-staff and half-mast are synonymous, though usage may vary with language community (e.g., Canadian vs. British vs. U.S. English)”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_mast

Not that it really matters to me, but the U.S. Code only refers to half-staff. That said, a Google search shows government sites often use the terms interchangeably.

One more rebound to this to-may-to / to-mah-to discourse and I’m going to call the thread half-assed. ‘)

It is always good to see a flag at half-mast or half-staff correctly. Ignorant people assume ‘half’ means the middle of the pole. Not so. You drop it to one-flag-height from the top of the pole.

Well, according to paragraph m-1 of the U.S. Code I mentioned earlier:

the term “half-staff” means the position of the flag when it is one-half the distance between the top and bottom of the staff