Firefighter Seeks Change in Flag Display Regulations

When Cliff Graves died fighting a house fire in 1983, his buddies in Rocklin, Calif., gave him a hero’s sendoff.

The funeral procession stretched five miles. Graves’ casket--carried on the back of a firetruck--was covered with the U.S. flag, and flags at City Hall and at the volunteer fire station were flown at half-staff.

In helping to make funeral arrangements for his fellow volunteer firefighter, George Magnuson learned he was violating the Federal Flag Code by flying the American flag at half-staff.

“The last act you do for somebody shouldn’t be something that is not a legal act,” he said. “I really firmly believe that when somebody dies helping to protect fellow citizens, that the citizenry should have the right to honor them.”

The flag code, a 1942 law that dictates proper use and display of the flag, says presidents and governors should decide when to fly the flag at half-staff.

The code also spells out which deceased people should be honored with a lowered flag--current and former presidents, vice presidents and Supreme Court chief justices; and current governors, Cabinet secretaries and Congress members.

Magnuson wants Congress or President Clinton to amend the flag code so that it says local officials can fly the flag at half-staff for police, firefighters and other public safety officers who die in the line of duty.

Magnuson, now vice mayor, began his crusade in 1991 when he won a seat on the City Council in Rocklin, a town of about 32,000, located 18 miles northeast of Sacramento.

Last year, he raised the issue at a National League of Cities meeting. The response seemed favorable, but league officials say they didn’t pursue the issue because of a lack of interest from other members.

National police and firefighter groups say that no one has ever approached them about trying to change the flag code, but that Magnuson’s idea has promise.

“I can think of no higher honor” for slain police officers, said Craig Floyd, chairman of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a Washington, D.C., group that commemorates officers killed in the line of duty.

George Burke, spokesman for the International Assn. of Fire Fighters, said amending the flag code to include firefighters “would be wonderful.” But, he added, “it’s certainly not a burning issue here.”

Firefighter groups lower the U.S. flag outside their Washington, D.C., headquarters each time they learn a firefighter has died in the line of duty, and they do so without permission from a governor or the president.

So why bother to try to change the code?

The Federal Flag Code carries no civil or criminal penalties for violations. City officials can--and some do--lower the flag to half-staff without permission and without fear of sanction.

Magnuson went to U.S. Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Rocklin), who learned from the Congressional Research Service that the flag code’s half-staff provisions are a guide that does not apply to private citizens and groups.

Doolittle wonders whether the flag code needs to be changed, although he is considering legislation or a resolution that would make it clear local officials can honor public safety officers, said Richard Robinson, Doolittle’s spokesman.

Veterans’ groups take the flag code seriously and recommend that local officials follow it.

Michael Gormalley of the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ national office in Kansas City, Mo., said the code should not be changed as Magnuson suggests because it already calls for flying the flag at half-staff on Peace Officers Memorial Day each May 15.

Gormalley recommends that local officials lower a city or other local flag to honor local heroes--or that they fly a black ribbon or drapery below a fully raised U.S. flag.

Michael Buss of the American Legion’s national office in Indianapolis says local officials who want to honor slain police and firefighters should call their governor’s office and seek an official declaration to lower the flag.

Such declarations have been common when law enforcement officials die on the job in Indiana, he said.

But Magnuson doesn’t like the alternatives. Peace Officers Memorial Day doesn’t cover firefighters, he said, and contacting the governor seems inconvenient.

“It should be an authorized procedure,” Magnuson said. “Just say, ‘This is OK, you don’t have to worry about it.’ ”

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On the Net: the Federal Flag Code: https://www.legion.org/flagcode.htm