If only we had a flag co — oh wait a minute, we do have a flag code.

Subsequent to the death of U.S. Sen. John McCain, flag-respecting Americans jumped into action and demonstrated their respect of his passage through flag protocol.

There were some who decided apparently that while he had served as senator, he hadn’t been that active recently, so let’s just continue to fly the flag at full staff.

Others decided since he in fact had been a senator serving for so long, that we’ll put the flag at half-staff on the day of his death and the next day and then raise it to full staff. Others seemed to remember some other high-ranking government servants and decided to lower the flag to half staff and keep it that way for 10 days and then raise the flag to full staff.

Some others felt that being both a U.S. senator and war hero, that the right honor would be shown by lowering the flag to half-staff and keeping it that way until the day of interment and then raise the flag back to full staff.

So since we do have a flag code-title 4 in the United States, why not follow it? And for those wondering as to what is the correct flag protocol subsequent to the death of a United States senator, the code calls for the flag to be lowered to half-staff on the day of and the following day, and then raised back to full staff.

Owen E. Trainor III

Bristol