While I appreciate all the "insights" some of you have wrt flag raising at A&M, the answer is quite simple: the flag poles at Kyle Field are equipped with crank handles to raise the flag - not lanyards raised by hand. The flag only goes up as quickly as the crank can be turned.

This issue has nothing to do with "our Corps getting further away from anything military..." (pretty bold statement, given that our Corps - and its military style environment - is all that remains of the military roots of our great university). Its a simple matter of how these flag poles are equipped to raise the flags vs flag poles we have elsewhere on campus with lanyards.

Thanks for your "insights." As someone who's here 24/7, I can attest that mistakes DO get made when raising and lowering the flag. I saw the same thing in the Army - mistakes get made with the flags on military posts all the time. I'm just thankful that our Corps still raises and lowers the flag at our great university. There are probably some who wouldn't care if we raised the flag at A&M - but the Corps isn't one of them.

Criticize them if you want about mistakes made wrt raising and lowering the flag - at least they're doing it, rain or shine, hot or cold - they show up and do it - every day. And I for one am thankful that they do.

The Commandant beat me to it. It's a crank, and they can only get it up as fast as the gears will allow.

I would much rather have the Corps raising the flags across campus than a grounds keeper. At least the opportunity exists to train Cadets.

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I wonder if anyone has investigated what it would take to change out the crank to a regular lanyard?

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I wonder how hard it would be to hoist a huge flag to the top of a 100' flagpole without a crank?

Here is what I found on flag raising and lowering:

"The flag should be raised briskly and lowered slowly and ceremoniously."

While the flag may not be raised as "briskly" as you might like, I can assure you that its being raised as "briskly" as it possibly can. There are no time standards for raising and lowering the flag. We can all make our own determination just what "briskly" means to us, but as far as I'm concerned, its gone up "briskly enough" each and every time I've watched it raised at home games. You can disagree if you choose to, but from my perspective, the flag raising at Kyle Field is just fine.

And NO, there will be no "retrofit" of flag poles at Kyle Field because someone feels the flag isn't being raised "briskly" or quickly enough. Its being raised properly during the National Anthem, is fully raised by the end of the Anthem, and as long as it is, there will be no need for a "retrofit" to make it raise more "briskly" to suit someone's idea of what that means.