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Service Flag (U.S.)

Service Star, Blue Star Banner

by Rick Wyatt, 12 January 1999

Description
Current Regulations
The Name Game

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United States of America

Description

The "Sons in Service" flag 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. Organizations and corporations extended this practice to fly flags incorporating stars for each of their members/employees who were off to war and, of course, would change/overlay the blue stars with gold ones when the news came back that one of theirs had died in action. These larger flags (I have one with some 50 stars in a circle, a quarter of them in gold, measuring about 8 feet long overall) were sometimes flown outside on a pole, but most often were suspended from the ceiling of the factory / meeting hall indoors.

It is not always easy to determine a date for these flags, though I believe that WW I era flags were more likely to be made of wool, and WW II flags usually were sewn of cotton bunting. However, they are definitely no older than 1917, the date of entry of the USA into WW I. Some WW II era flags with one or two stars were printed on silk and sold retail for those who didn't feel like sewing their own.

Nick Artimovich, 2 May 1997

To elaborate on what Nick Artimovich and Nathan Bliss wrote about this flag, I have a book entitled "The Flag of the United States -- Your Flag and Mine" by Harrison S. Kerrick (Champlin Printing Co., Columbus, Ohio; 1925) that states (pg. 114):