I was at the Post Office the other morning and noticed that the flag was at half-staff and I was wondering about that as I continued on to work since I hadn’t heard of anyone dying recently. Or, at least not a death that would cause the flag to be at half-staff (grunts in Iraq don’t count). When I got to work I noticed our flag was at-full staff and I checked with the security guy when I went in but he hadn’t heard anything. We both thought it was probably Pearl Harbor Day. He said he would check it out. I looked into it a bit later and found that yes, indeed, there are four times a year when the flag is flown at half-staff, as a matter of course. Peace Officer’s Day, Korean Armistice Day, Patriot Day and Pearl Harbor Day. ( When and How to Display Our Flag)

I checked later in the day and they hadn’t bothered to lower the flag. I guess they had better things to do.

And just to note, a Mast is on a ship, a Staff is on land.