Last modified: 2024-10-19 by rob raeside
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The color of military units is made up of the Aquila, the banner (the canvas of the color), the rod and the accessories.
The motto "Honor and Homeland" is inscribed on the observe on the prop and the full name of the military unit is inscribed on the reverse. The support is screwed on the truncated cone muff on top of the rod. The Aquila, the prop and the ornament are made of gilded copper plate. The banner is made of double-textured silk, it is rectangular in shape, 100 cm long and 66 cm wide, identically adorned on both sides.
On the banner the colours of the Romanian flag are strip-copied, beginning with blue next to the rod, then yellow and red. On the yellow strip in the centre, 18 cm from the banner basis Romania's coloured arms is applied. It is embroidered in gold and silver thread. It is 29 cm long and 21.5 cm wide.
On each of the four corners, 5 cm from the banner edges are two-branch wreaths embroidered in gild thread. They are 18 cm high and have the signs of the military force the unit belongs to inside.
On the three free sides, the banner is attached 5-7 cm long golden thread fringes and to the corners of the red strip there are 10-12 cm tassels made of golden thread.
The banner is attached to the rod by means of a stainless stick, 70 cm long. The brown wooden rod is 240 cm long and 3.5 cm in diameter. The metal stick is attached to the top of the rod with a truncated cone brass muff, 6 cm high, on which the Aquila is fixed. On the lower side, a 3.2 cm brass ring is inscribed the full name of the military unit. The truncated cone muff and the ring are gilded.
The rod has a brass cylinder on its lower end for protection purpose. The cylinder is closed at its lower end and is 4 cm high and 3.4 cm in inner diameter.
Quoted from "The Colors", Romanian Ministry of Defence homepage.
Calvin Paige Herring, 11 May 1998
Romanian military colours can be seen on the municipal website of
Alba Iulia (1 December 1999 celebrations) at
http://www.apulum.ro/en/foto-album2.htm. The image gallery shows detailed
images of the colours and, compared to our image, it seems that the shield is
larger on the real flags and that the ornaments in the corners of the flags are
yellow and not white.
Ivan Sache, 16 May 2005
I attended 3 different military parades in Bucuresti. None of the units I saw
had "permanent" military colors. They were using ordinary Romanian civil flags
and were affixing the fringe and all the defacements with straight pins. The
defacements were well made and embroidered. Had they been any smaller, they
would have made excellent uniform patches. After the parades ended, someone
would remove all the defacements from their respective flags and put them in a
box.
Clay Moss, 16 May 2005
The description of the military colors found above is a translation of a part of the information found here. I think that the rest of the information is relevant too, so I'm going to summarize it below, after a short introduction to the subject:
These flags are called in Romanian "Drapel de luptă", which literally means "battle flag", that's why you will usually find them under this name on English pages. They are not to be confused with the Romanian war flag, which is identical to the national/state flag.
Every military unit has a flag of this kind. It is the symbol of the honor, bravery and military glory and evokes the past struggles for national liberty of the Romanian people and the military unit's traditions. The flag reminds every soldier his sacred duty to serve Romania faithfully and defend its unity, sovereignty and independence. The flag is kept at its respective unit and it is permanently guarded by the military men on duty. If the flag is lost in the battle or any other circumstances, the unit is dishonored and disbanded.by Alex Danes, 12 September 2008
The flags are granted by Decree of the President of Romania, following the proposal of the Minister of Defense, Minister for Internal Affairs or the Director of the Romanian Intelligence Service.
Although all the flags are identical to the description above, the weapon signs in the corners are different for each type of military unit:
Each flag has some accessories:The units that didn't get a military color use the flag of Romania for the same purpose.
- a cravat (4 cm wide, 132 cm long) for decorations. It's made of golden lace with two silk threads attached, one red and the other blue. Each of the endings has a 6 cm long tassel.
- six scarfs for the guards of the flag (7.7 cm wide and 178 cm long), made of leather covered with red silk. The edges have a 0.8 cm wide ornament made of yellow silk. The color bearer's scarf has a black leather muff for the flag's rod end (4.5 cm internal diameter, 20 cm long), while the other men's scarves have instead a 10 to 12 cm long golden-yellow tassel.
- a protective cover, made of impermeable textile material. Not to be confused with the transparent plastic cover used on bad weather conditions.
If the unit changes its name or number, the prop and ring are changed too, but not the other elements of the flag. The replaced elements are kept in the unit's museum. The flags of the disbanded units must be handed to the military museums of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the Romanian Intelligence Service respectively.
Apparently, each ship of the naval forces and coastguard is considered a military unit. The military colors is their naval ensign.
I've found a page of the Firefighters in Bucharest. The text is not that important because it has some inaccuracies. The fourth flag reveals that the firefighters themselves have a separate symbol in the corners of the flag (the weapon sign), but the image is so small that I couldn't distinguish anything.
Alex Danes, 24 January 2009
The military colors are brought out from their shop case when:
2:3, image by Zoltan Horvath, 6 September 2024
The naval ensign is identical to the Romanian national flag and it's made of bunting. Its dimensions are accordingly to the rank of the ship: bigger for a higher rank ship and smaller for a lower rank ship. The hoist edge of the ensign has a reinforcement linen sewn to it, so that the flag can be hoisted on a staff line.
by Alex Danes, 12 September 2008
Flags and ensigns used on naval ships are defined by:
REGULAMENTUL din 1
februarie 2022 serviciului la bordul navelor militare
https://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocument/251632
Zoltan Horvath, 6 September 2024
The ensign is hoisted on the stern daily at 08:00 o'clock AM and on holidays at 09:00 o'clock AM. This is usually done in the presence of the entire crew. When the ship is sailing, the ensign is permanently hoisted at mast's peak. The ensign is lowered at dawn, without the presence of the crew when the ship is anchored.
by Alex Danes, 12 September 2008
images by Zoltan Horvath, 6 September 2024
A new Naval Jack has been using since 2019 (above, left), which was slightly modified in
2022 (above, right). It is light blue with the national flag in the canton and a new style of black
anchor placed in the fly.
Image of flag:
photo
at
https://omanadecuvinte.wordpress.com
(current version)
https://commons.wikimedia.org (2019 version)
Zoltan Horvath, 6 September 2024
In regards to the current Romanian Jack, neither
Armand nor I know of the date when it was taken into use. We can only speculate
that it was fairly recent. His picture was taken in March 1998.
Calvin Paige Herring, 11 May 1998
National flag in square format with two white anchors in saltire defacing the
blue stripe in its middle. Based on editions of
Album des Pavillons the flag was brought into use between 1995 and 2000 (or
1998, when already it was reported by Paige Herring).
Željko Heimer, 20 December 2002
A light blue flag with the national flag in the canton and a black outlined
anchor in the middle of the fly half. The naval jack in the same pattern as the
current naval rank flags was mentioned in Romanian official documents on
19-Nov-1995, and this is probably the date of the adoption, too. (Are the other
rank flags from that they too?). It was abandoned before March 1998.
Željko Heimer, 22 December 2002
This information came from a booklet of the Romanian Navy itself. Since then, I saw a Romanian frigate in a port visit here; she had a different jack: plain tricolor with two white
intertwined anchors in the blue. I took a photo and this new jack will appear in the next correction to the album.
Armand Noel du Payrat, 5 May 1998
Corr. 27 to the French Navy Album was based on an official Romanian Naval document dated 19 November 1995.
Armand Noel du Payrat, 6 May 1998
The image was reproduced in FOTW format from images at the Romanian Military website, but the detail of the anchor is my problem. It shows a single blue foul anchor with black holding lines. Any change must have been quite recent.
Calvin Paige Herring, 5 May, 1998
Triangular pennant in the national colours. This was used since mid 19th
century, right?
Željko Heimer, 20 December 2002