USNA's flag-dipping under fire

By EARL KELLY, Staff Writer

Published 03/11/08

The ritual of dipping the American flag before the altar at the Naval Academy Chapel has come under fire, and one group plans to ask a federal court to put an end to the practice.

Capital file photo In this file photo, a Naval Academy color guard dips the Navy, Marine Corps and Brigade of Midshipmen flags, but not the U.S. flag.

In the only known ritual of its kind in the Navy, the color guard at the Naval Academy Chapel dips the American flag and the academy flag when they are carried before the altar cross during the 11 a.m. Sunday Protestant service.

Vice Adm. Jeffrey L. Fowler, who became academy superintendent in June, considered the ritual to be inappropriate and stopped it in October.

He reinstated it last month after some churchgoers complained.

Now, the...

This story has expired!
You can purchase the full text in our news archives.

YOUR COMMENTS

RULES OF PARTICIPATION

If you encounter other problems, please email ewiffin@capitalgazette.com and include your name, username, and any errors or messages that are displayed. The more information you can provide, the better able we will be to assist you.

In order to post or vote on a comment, you must be signed in with a hometownannapolis account.

Report Abuse or Vote In order to allow the user community the ability to collectively rank the value of comments posted on the Capital Gazette websites we have implemented a thumbs-up/down system. All logged-in users may participate by voting up/down each comment. If others vote on your comment, your individual score will go up/down depending on the votes. Initially, everyone starts with a score of zero, and must earn credits to have significant voting weight. Individuals with higher scores will have more voting weight. 0

Flag Dipping - June 29, 2008

When this rule came into effect: This tradition comes from the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, where countries were asked to dip their flag to King Edward VII: the American team captain Martin Sheridan refused, famously proclaiming that "this flag dips to no earthly king.".After which the congress inspired by the public enacted rules governing the flag... In the spirit of the statement made by Martin Sheridan the rule would be that the flag could only be diped to God in a religious manner.Therefore no earthly person or thing applies to earthly objects, or people.Therefore to Honor God above country,flag or family would be the application that dipping the flag would apply to honoring God.If the person is bringing honor to God out of respect, then dipping the flag with this purpose in mind would apply in this case. Honoring God would be the only exception to the rule.

unhide Comment hidden due to low ranking

David T. - Columbus, OH - Karma: Bad

U.S. Flag - March 12, 2008

Our United States Naval Academy, a school steeped in rules, regulations and order, above all others, should be able to recognize that dipping the U.S. flag in a religious ceremony is very wrong. There is no grey area in the matter. They may say it's a tradition, but so was hazing. It's just plain wrong.

unhide Comment hidden due to low ranking

Dave D. - Pasadena, MD - Karma: Neutral