The "First Navy Jack", currently flown only by the oldest warship in the U.S. Navy.
The First Navy Jack
Proportion
2:1
Adopted
October 13, 1975 (as U.S. naval jack) August 18, 1980 (for oldest U.S. warships) September 11, 2002 (as U.S. naval jack)
Relinquished
December 31, 1976 (as U.S. naval jack) June 4, 2019 (as U.S. naval jack)
Design
13 horizontal stripes of alternating red and white, charged with a rattlesnake and inscribed on the lowest white stripe: "DONT [sic] TREAD ON ME".
The First Navy Jack was the naval jack of the United States from 1975 to 1976 and again from 2002 to 2019. It was authorized by the U.S. Navy and was flown from the jackstaff of commissioned vessels of the U.S. Navy while moored pierside or at anchor. Since then, it is used only as a naval jack by the oldest active warship in the U.S. Navy.[a] The design is traditionally regarded as that of the first U.S. naval jack, flown soon after independence, but this is not supported by the historical record.
The First Navy Jack was replaced as the U.S. naval jack by the U.S. Union Jack (consisting of white stars on a blue field, not to be confused with the flag of the United Kingdom, also commonly called "the Union Jack") on June 4, 2019, by order of the Chief of Naval Operations.[1][2][3]
History
Historically probable first naval jack. Variant featuring all-gold rattlesnake; typically seen during the 1970s.
In late 1775, as the first ships of the Continental Navy readied in the Delaware River, Commodore Esek Hopkins issued an instruction directing his vessels to fly a "striped" jack and ensign. The exact design of these flags is unknown. But, since about 1880, this jack has traditionally been depicted as consisting of thirteen red and white stripes charged with an uncoiled rattlesnake and the motto "Dont Tread on Me" [sic]; this design appeared in a color plate in Admiral George Henry Preble's influential History of the Flag of the United States. Recent scholarship, however, has demonstrated that this design never existed but "was a 19th-century mistake based on an erroneous 1776 engraving".[4]
In 1778, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sicily, thanking him for allowing entry of revolutionary ships into Sicilian ports. The letter describes the new flag of the colonies according to the 1777 Flag Resolution, but also describes a flag of "South Carolina, a rattlesnake, in the middle of the thirteen stripes."[5]
The rattlesnake (specifically, the Timber Rattlesnake) is especially significant and symbolic to the American Revolution. The rattle has thirteen layers, signifying the original Thirteen Colonies. Additionally, the snake does not strike until provoked, a characteristic expressed by the phrase "Don't tread on me" (see Gadsden flag).
Typically the flag's rattlesnake is depicted with red scales on its back,[6] but some have depicted the snake as all-gold.[7][8][9]
Modern use of the flag is usually traced to 1976, when the United States celebrated its Bicentennial. All commissioned naval vessels were directed to fly the First Navy Jack for that calendar year while moored or anchored, and their commanding officers were authorized to retain and fly it thereafter.
The flag that had been used before, and afterward was the standard, was the fifty-star Union Jack. In 1980, Secretary of the NavyEdward Hidalgo directed that the warship or fleet auxiliary (e.g. a vessel designated as a "United States Ship" or "USS") with the longest active status shall display the First Navy Jack until decommissioned or transferred to inactive service.[10]
The status of the flag was changed on May 31, 2002. Navy Secretary Gordon England issued SECNAV Instruction 10520.6, directing all warships and auxiliaries of the U.S. Navy to fly the First Naval Jack as a "temporary substitution" for the Jack of the United States "during the Global War on Terrorism".[10] The idea was based on a post-9/11 suggestion from retired Captain Brayton Harris, who in 1975 and 1976 had been Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy for the bicentennial. Most vessels made the symbolic switch on September 11, 2002 during the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks. Not all US vessels flew the flag while moored or at anchor. Those that did not included commissioned vessels of the U.S. Coast Guard designated as "United States Coast Guard Cutter" ("USCGC"), USCG patrol boats, vessels of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, and predominantly civilian-crewed vessels of the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command.
On February 21, 2019, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral John Richardson, announced the blue Union Jack would be returned to nearly all commissioned warships of the U.S. Navy. He restored the 1980 practice of reserving the First Navy Jack to the longest active status warship. This order disregards the USS Constitution, which technically is the oldest in the Navy but is used only for ceremonial purposes, and the USS Pueblo, which was captured by North Korea in 1968 and is currently a museum ship though is still commissioned in the U.S. Navy.[11] The honor of "oldest ship" in the Fleet[b] was conferred on the following U.S. Navy vessels:
Since September 11, 2002, U.S. Navy installations and facilities ashore have been allowed but not required to fly the First Navy Jack from multi-halyard gaff-rigged flagpoles when the United States ensign is also flown.
The First Navy Jack has also been authorized for wear as a patch by sailors and naval officers on flight suits and certain versions of the Navy Working Uniform (NWU), including sailors and naval officers wearing the Army Combat Uniform (ACU) while assigned to and serving with Army units, at the discretion of the local Army commander.[12][13] For the NWU and ACU, the patch is typically worn on the opposite sleeve as the U.S. flag.
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