How to Read Navy Signal Flags
Navy signal flags are used to communicate with other U.S. Navy and ally ships when they are not using electronic communications. Reading Navy signal flags is a straightforward matter of memorizing a series of flags. Each flag has a particular pattern or symbol and combination of colors that represents a specific message. For example, a white flag with a red "X" means "I require assistance." Each flag has a name and a phonetic pronunciation; the name of this flag is "victor." The flags can represent two basic kinds of information: A message like the above example or the numerals zero through nine. In addition to the ten numeral flags there are ten numeral pennants that are also zero through nine.
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Instructions
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Learning Navy signal flags
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Understand that there are two basic kinds of information provided by the flags. One is to convey a specific message and the other is to provide a discrete piece of information such as the number "1." There are three criteria to know about each flag: name, message and description. The flag called "whiskey" is a white flag with a blue border and a red square in the center. It represents the message, "I Require Medical Assistance."
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Memorizing the Navy signal flags requires some amount of study. Try to learn them in chunks instead of all of them at the same time. For example, learn the numbers before trying to learn the messages. You can break the list of flags into three groups: the message flags, numeral flags and numeral pennants.
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You will have to learn the difference between the numeral flags and the numeral pennants. The pennant that represents the numeral one is white with a red oval in the center. Compare this with the numeral one flag, which has three horizontal stripes. The top and bottom stripes are red and the middle stripe is yellow.
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Review the flags using flash cards. Draw or write a description of each flag on one side of the card and the appropriate message or number on the other side. For example, you would write "I Require Assistance" on one side of a card and draw a white flag with a red "X" on the other side.
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