The History of Military Service Star Banners By Doris Montag A service flag or banner is one that family members of those serving in the U.S. Armed Forces can display. It is officially defined as a white field with a red border, with a blue star for each immediate family member serving during any period of war or conflict. According to the Department of Defense code, the flag size ratio must be 10:19, the same as the American flag. The service flag was designed and patented by World War I Capt. Robert L. Queisser, whose two sons were serving on the front line. The flag was intended to be displayed in the front window of people’s homes to indicate one or more family members were in the Armed Services. In 1918 President Wilson approved a request from the Women’s Committee of the Council of National Defense that American women who had lost a child serving in the war should wear a black mourning band on the left arm with a gilt star for each child lost. This approval led to the tradition of a gold star covering the blue star on the service flag to show that the service member had passed. The gold star represented valor and sacrifice to the cause of freedom. (It is believed Wilson coined the term “Gold Star Mother.”) Just after World War I, the Gold Star Mothers Club was formed by Grace Darling Siebold (her son was Lt. George Vaughn Seibold) to support other mothers who had lost children in the war.
The club’s other purpose was to give loving care/visits to hospitalized veterans confined in government hospitals far from home. American Gold Star Mothers, Inc. was founded in 1929 as a nondenominational, nonprofit, and nonpolitical organization. Twenty-five mothers living in Washington, D.C., were original members of the group. Other clubs across the nation quickly requested membership. Still active today, there are over 900 members. In 1936, the United States began recognizing mothers of fallen service members by observing Gold Star Mother’s Day on the last Sunday of September. Amended in 2011, President Barack Obama made this commemorative day Gold Star Mother’s and Family’s Day. May 1 has been designated as Silver Star Service Banner Day to honor the sacrifices of combat-wounded, ill, and dying service members. For those who serve in the U.S. military, 1 in 10 suffers a severe injury. Most of those injuries are combat related. Since World War II, the use of service flags and wearing of Gold Star pins (issued by the Defense Department) has declined, but their meaning as symbols of sacrifice remains significant and relevant yet today. In a proclamation issued Sept. 24, 2015, Obama said that most Americans cannot fully comprehend the price Gold Star family members have paid: “Their sleepless nights allow for our peaceful rest, and the folded flags they hold dear are what enable ours to wave. The depth of their sorrow is immeasurable, and we are forever indebted to them for all they have given us.”
Sept. 26 is Gold Star Mother’s and Family’s Day
! r a e r u o y s u d Len 50plus LIFE and Vision Resources of Central Pennsylvania have partnered to bring you weekly audio readings of 50plus LIFE’s editorial content!
Listen to the livestream Thursdays from 12:30-1:30 p.m. at www.vrocp.org! The program will repeat 3 times that day and Saturdays from 11-11:30 a.m.
For more information, call Vision Resources at (717) 238-2531 and listen at visit www.vrocp.org. 6
September 2021
50plus LIFE
LOCAL INSECTS from page 2 nectar, lay eggs on milkweed plants, and then die. The next two generations each summer consume milkweeds as caterpillars, pupate, and continue north, sipping nectar, laying eggs on milkweed, and dying. But each year’s fourth generation journeys to Mexico to escape winter. During October, many hundreds of fluttering, orange-and-brown pearl crescent butterflies, which have 1-inch wingspans, swarm upon thousands of lovely aster flowers in sunny fields, meadows, and roadsides to sip nectar. Asters are one of the last big sources of nectar at the end of each growing season. Also during October, as a response to colder nights, many differential grasshoppers and wooly bear caterpillars cross country roads. The large, gray-green grasshoppers leap across those rural roads to find favorable places in soil to spawn eggs before they die in frost. Wooly bears undulate over the blacktop to find sheltered places in the ground to spend the coming winter. By late October, swarms of attractive ladybug beetles and ash-leafed maple bugs, or box elder bugs, congregate in groups of their own in sheltered places, including under logs, leaf litter, or rock piles, where they will spend the winter in relative safety. These great gatherings are seldom seen by most people, but it’s still interesting to acknowledge their presence. These are just a few intriguing insects living in southeastern Pennsylvania. There are many other kinds that offer interest to times spent outdoors. Clyde McMillan-Gamber is a retired Lancaster County Parks naturalist.
www.50plusLifePA.com
