Quote Originally Posted by EagleJCS View Post
As far as dipping flags go (as part of ‘rendering honors’), again, check out the USC (this time, Title 4, chapter 1, section 8). The U.S. flag is never dipped (especially not while in the U.S.), unless it is the ensign (the U.S. flag flying on a ship) responding to a salute from a ship of a foreign nation. State or other organization's flags may be dipped in salute.
Dipping the ensign is, I'm afraid, another tradition that is going by the wayside. Few merchantment continue the practice due to skeletally thin crews and warships the world over have deck officers who are terrified of flubbing the procedure!