“Yes” or “affirmative.”
Signal structure
Charlie is a square flag divided into five equal horizontal bands. From top to bottom, the sequence is blue, white, red, white, and blue, producing a horizontally symmetrical pattern.
Operational use
Flown alone, Charlie answers a question or signal in the affirmative. Within a multi-flag hoist, the same cloth can represent the letter C as part of a coded group, so its meaning depends on the complete signal and context.
Recognition notes
The red center band is isolated between two white bands, with blue at both outer edges. This sequence distinguishes Charlie from other striped alphabet flags when viewed at distance.
Source trail
U.S. Naval Service Training Command: Cadet Reference Manual, signal flags ↗
Naval History and Heritage Command: phonetic alphabet and signal flags ↗
Date and proportions
The imported record labels “Effective 1969” as the current code era. This concerns the code edition in use, rather than establishing when Charlie’s design originated. Support for that date has not been verified in the two linked naval references.
“Square” describes this record’s reference rendering. It does not establish a universal manufacturing requirement. The supplied evidence does not verify an official dimensional specification or customary manufactured proportions. The illustration is a screen reference, not evidence of standardized physical dimensions or exact manufactured colors.
Reading the Morse notation
The existing Morse sequence, – · – ·, reads “dash, dot, dash, dot.” It is the Morse code for letter C. This spells out the notation already supplied in the imported record.
Evidence by claim
The Cadet Reference Manual, third edition, printed page 14, table “U.S. Navy Signal Flags,” Charlie row, supports the affirmative meaning. That locator and wording were checked in a third-party text reproduction of the manual, viewer page 20; the original Navy PDF could not be retrieved during this review. The reproduction’s extracted text does not verify the flag’s colored pattern or dimensions.
The Naval History and Heritage Command’s “Phonetic Alphabet and Signal Flags” has an indexed table row for C that associates the letter with Charlie. The full page could not be retrieved, so its column headings and flag illustration were not independently inspected. It is not treated here as verified support for the affirmative meaning, five equal bands, proportions or 1969 date.
The five equal bands and their blue–white–red–white–blue order, the complete-hoist qualification and the Morse sequence are retained from the supplied record; precise support for those statements in the two existing references remains unverified. Neither reference was verified as establishing 1969 as the current code’s effective date or as specifying universal square manufacture. The imported section and its original citations remain preserved; their preservation does not resolve these evidence gaps.