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PedanticallySpeaking, sorry to run roughshod over your recent edits, but there were a few points I wanted to correct:

• The ship was the "North Wind".
• Pan Am had permission from the US Navy to use Kingman for their survey flights, but didn't have permission for scheduled service. No doubt they would have received it, but since they found that Kingman was basically awash most of the time, they would have had difficulty making a base there. Docking a tanker at the site was not an option and even so, did not have the quality of accommodations that they would have liked for their passengers.
• Pan Am didn't get service to Australia until well after WWII.
• I don't think the loss of the Samoan Clipper had anything to do with the switch. It was lost at Pago Pago (or more accurately Apia), and Pan Am continued to use American Samoa after the switch to Canton. Bollar 18:48, Sep 11, 2004 (UTC)

American Polynesia does list the name of the ship as the Trade Wind. I would like some referrence as to why the reef was abandoned, maybe from a Pan Am website? After long distance flights were well established in WW 2, the importance of mid-Pacific airports was minimized. Pustelnik (talk) 23:26, 29 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This article doesn't say WHY it is closed off to the public..

Anyone have an idea why or what is smeared out of Kingman Reef when looking at it on Google Earth? It's very obvious blurring, just wondering what could be so secret when the military has all but abandoned most of the atolls and reefs since WWII. 192.75.68.254 (talk) 15:40, 22 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Do the reef defines an economic Zone ???? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cuye (talk • contribs) 12:04, 16 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The reason for removal of the unofficial flag is that there seems to be no evidence this flag is anything more than a project created by a flag enthusiast. Using reverse google image searches and searching for "Kingman reef flag," one will find other user-created flags such as one with a clam design. I could not find any references to this particular flag using Wayback Machine on the websites that host its image before 2017, and I could not find any real-life use of this flag or any mention of it by NPS or any government agency. This flag "exists" just as much as a flag I could make using MS paint within a minute exists. Just because someone made a flag for the territory does not make it the "unofficial flag," otherwise the page could be filled with all number of users' own ideas as to how the flag should look.

The reason the other unofficial flags have been allowed is because they were developed and/or used by NPS during an official ceremony for the USS Arizona in 1999. An NPS agent contacted the representatives of these territories and found that flags were already being used for these islands, or that the representatives wanted to have one developed. A custom flag was used for the territories of Wake, Midway, Navassa, Palmyra, and Johnston during the ceremony, but there is no law giving them their own flags, so these are good candidates for unofficial flags. In this ceremony, though, the US Navy flag was used for Kingman Reef since it was under their administration, not a flag with a shark on it. The NPS agent then mentions that since the island was transferred to the Dept of the Interior in 2009, he would now use the Interior's flag as Baker, Howland, and Jarvis used in 1999. This article is from 2010 and was pages 10-11 issue 208 of NAVA News. Link

If any source can be provided of this shark flag's use in any real capacity other than as a design for amateur flag artists I'll be happy to revert the changes (such as its use in a later government/military ceremony), but until then this appears to be an unsourced enthusiast flag pulled from hobbyist websites. GoldenBoy9999 (talk) 03:39, 5 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I completely agree with your statement. It seems obvious to me that it is a flag someone just made up. I have tried to remove it a couple of times but it has always been added back with the rationale that it exists and is unofficial. You're right it does exist and is unofficial but only in the sense that any flag you or I made up for it exists and is unofficial. Hopefully this thread will provide the consensus necessary to remove it permanently. Fenix down (talk) 07:11, 5 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I concur. — Joe Kress (talk) 21:19, 6 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]