Template documentation | This template is used on approximately 10,000 pages and changes may be widely noticed. Test changes in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them. |
This template is used to select the appropriate ensign of the United States Navy for the Ship flag parameter of {{Infobox Ship Career}}. The template was created because the flag of the United States changed whenever a new state was admitted to the union. Its intent is to make getting the right ensign easier.
- Usage
{{USN flag|year}}
The year parameter is optional; if absent, the current (since July 4, 1960) ensign is displayed. The image is rendered at 100x35px pixel size, which is the default standard also used by {{Shipboxflag}} for the same usage.
Nitpicky usage note: the "official" date of flag turnover is always July 4th of the year specified. The template displays the flag used at the end of the specified year, which is actually always the smaller part of that year. For example, the US flag changed from 46 to 48 stars on July 4, 1912, so if you use {{USN flag|1912}} in an article, it will display the 48-star flag. If, however, you wanted to indicate a 46-star flag for a ship that only served in early 1912, you will need to indicate the previous year's flag, {{USN flag|1911}} in order to render that number of stars.
See {{navy}} for an alternate method of rendering historical United States flags, but in icon size and with a wikilink to the United States Navy article. For example, {{navy|USA|1912}} will produce 
United States Navy.
- See also
- {{Country data United States}}