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Navy - Submarine Service (U.S.)

Gold and Silver Qualification Dolphins Flags
Centennial Jack
Submarine Operating In Area Warning Flag

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Gold and Silver Qualification Dolphins Flags

image by Joe McMillan, 11 September 1999
image by Joe McMillan, 11 September 1999

Gold and Silver Dolphin flags - These flags are flown aboard submarines when not under way to indicate that all the officers (gold dolphins) or enlisted men (silver dolphins) have qualified as submarine warfare specialists. The flags are approximately the same dimensions as the U.S. union jack, navy blue with a representation of the officers' gold or enlisted silver submariner's badge. I saw both flags displayed aboard USS Jacksonville, flying beneath the commission pennant on a small staff attached to the trailing edge of the sail of the submarine.
Joe McMillan, 10 March 2000

Centennial Jack

image by Joe McMillan, 11 September 1999

It was authorized for display on Submarines and Sub-Tenders and Sub Bases during the year 2000 by the U.S. Secretary of the Navy on 3 June 1999 in SECNAVINST 10520.5.

It is being appliqued in nylon, double sided, with ring and snap, in three sizes: 22 9/16" x 31 15/16"; 32 1/3" x 45 3/8" and 126" x180"

They are a curiosity as the instruction contained no drawing, specification, blueprint or description and were apparently authorized before the design was promulgated. I was originally told that it was a version of the loge done in white and blue.

The flags are a further curiosity in that they are an authorized U.S. naval flag/jack and they were ordered made in Hong Kong, instead of going through the normal bid & acquisition process here in the United States.
James J. Ferrigan III, 30 January 1999

It is simply the centennial logo on white. The authorizing directive 10520.5, issued June 3, 1999, directs the use of this jack in lieu of the normal U.S. union jack from 0800 on January 1, 2000, until sunset on December 31, 2000, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the introduction into service of the U.S. Navy's first submarine in 1900.
Joe McMillan, 6 October 2000

Submarine Operating in Area - Warning Flag

image by Jorge Candeias, 17 May 2006

Fairly early in the history of submarines, surface ships of the U.S. Navy began using a special flag to indicate that a submarine was operating in the area. As late as 1983, when I left a five-year assignment with the submarine force, submarine rescue vessels still flew this flag when in port -- I'm not sure if it was flown when underway. Unfortunately, I no longer have access to the U.S. Navy flag book, so cannot tell you if it was official or merely traditional, and if the former, under what circumstances it was/is flown.

This image is a representation of this flag as shown in the 1917 National Geographic flag issue. Dimensions were not given, but the ratio and proportions are pretty close. The description indicates that the flag was flown (1) from the tender (I think this refers to accompanying ship, not a submarine tender as we know them today) and (2) as a small metal flag attached to the submarine's periscope. I can guarantee that the latter is no longer practiced. So now we can add a "steel" fish to our collection!
Al Fisher Jr, 17 November 1997