It's time to revive an old tradition and bring back the war-service flag
By Wayde R. Minami
An editorial from the December 30, 2002 edition of Air Force Times

During the World Wars, the war-service flag was a staple in America. A white rectangle framed in red with a blue star for each family member in the service, this simple banner hung in windows of homes across the country to show a family's pride in their service member.

If a service member was killed, a gold star was placed over the blue to honor that sacrifice to the cause of liberty.

At least three national service organizations, Gold Star Mothers, Gold Star Wives, and Blue Star Wives, grew out of the service-flag tradition. These groups are the embodiment of what a service flag represents, supporting and assisting families of deployed or fallen service members as well as returning veterans.

I wonder why this effortless way of honoring the men and women who defend our nation has fallen by the wayside. Has our society become so jaded and cynical that such a small act of overt patriotism is somehow considered passé? Or are we just so lazy that the effort to stitch together a tiny tribute to those who go in harm's way is beyond our ken?

Or did people just forget this small but elegant way of saluting those who serve?

It has, after all, been almost 50 years - two full generations - since the service flag saw anything approaching widespread use. I guess it's understandable; the Vietnam War was so unpopular and the campaigns in the Persian Gulf and Kosovo were so brief as to preclude the use of the service flags. But more than a year into the current conflict, I have yet to see a single service flag or lapel pin, and I live outside a major military installation.

It's not that the service flags are unavailable. During previous wars, mothers often sewed them by hand as a tribute to their sons going off to war. A quick Internet search revealed half a dozen manufacturers and retailers offering ready-made service flags. But the fact of the matter is that unless you know to look, they aren't just something you're going to stumble across in casual shopping.

It's time for the service flag to make a reappearance, and the key to that, I'm convinced, is in getting the word out.

According the federal law, immediate family members - defined by the Defense Department's Awards Manual as the wife, husband, mother, father, stepmother, stepfather, parent through adoption, foster parents, who stand or stood in loco parentis, children, stepchildren, children through adoption, brothers, sisters, half brothers and half sisters - of a member of the armed forces are authorized to display the service flag during a time of war.

Most, I'm sure, would be proud to honor their service member in such a fashion, if they only knew the tradition.

There was a time when thousands of homes across the country were adorned with blue- and gold-star flags, and everyone knew what they meant.

Today, there are nearly none and, even among veterans, few under the age of 60 seem to understand their significance.

One hopes never to see a war service flag hanging in a window - especially one with a solemn gold star - because it means that young Americans are fighting and dying somewhere in the world. One hopes peace will endure and the blue- and gold-starred flags will not be necessary. Sadly, this remains a hope for the future.

As you read these words, American troops hunt al-Qaida through the mountains of Afghanistan while others face the prospect of combat on a chemical and biological battlefield in Iraq.

Some already died in the defense of our nation; others will do so in the months and years to come.

While the blanket of security that their blood purchases can never be fully paid for, such a simple gesture as displaying a service flag at least lets those who serve know that we are proud of them and grateful for the sacrifice they make.

And when you think about it, that's all our troops ever really asked.