BLUE AND GOLD STAR FLAGS
Reference:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~coyuma/data/gsvets/
The practice of displaying a service banner to recognize members of the family serving in the armed forces dates back to at least the Spanish American War and perhaps to the Civil War. The current design of a red and white flag with a blue service star (Blue Star Flags) for each serving family member originated in 1917 during World War I.
The blue service star is covered with a gold star to honor those who are killed in service. In the original 1917 design the blue star was covered by a silver star to honor those invalided home from wounds received in action. Blue Star Flags were widely displayed by families during World War II and a Gold Star Flag presentation to the family was a routine part of a World War II memorial service. Service flags were seldom seen during the Korean and Vietnam Wars but have been making a comeback since 1990.
The "Sons in Service" flag...
Reference:
http://www.fotw.ca/flags/us%5Esvc.html
was used during World War I and World War II. Each family was entitled to hang a small Son In Service flag in their window, the blue star in the center of the red-bordered white rectangle signified a family member in active service. The star was replaced (or covered) with a gold star (in practice, yellow or dark yellow) if the family member died in action. (Hence the name of the organization "Gold Star Mothers" of women who had lost sons in the war.) There were other variations to the star for missing in action, injured, captured, etc, etc, but flags of that sort are rarely, if ever, seen. Sons in Service flags made and used by families usually were no larger than about one foot long. They were always hung vertically, a stick being sewn into the top heading of the flag and a piece of string attached to both ends of the stick - the string suspended at its midpoint from a hook or some other feature of a front window of the home. If a family had a husband and a son, or multiple family members in the service of their country, then additional blue stars were set into the white rectangle.
MORE LINKS
Cypersarges:
http://cybersarges.tripod.com/
Order
your own cloth flags:
http://www.serviceflags.com/about.htm
The authorization for the flag is still on the books as 36 USC 176 and the instructions for design and display in the Department of Defense awards manual, DoD 1348.33-M.
by Rick Wyatt, 12 January 1999
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