Service Flags and Pins

History & service

Service flags are symbols of love and patriotic pride that families feel for their sons, daughters, husbands, wives, fathers and mothers who serve in the military during wartime. Usually hung in home windows, these small banners are a tribute to those defending America by serving in the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines or Coast Guard. Each blue star on a service flag represents a loved one serving, and gold stars denote those who have died in the line of duty.

Organizations and regulations formed round the service flag concept. During World War II, the War Department created specifications for the flags' size and design, though many homemade variations appeared. In 1967, Congress wrote guidelines for service flags and related lapel pins and buttons, and specified who could wear, make or sell them.

Though originally a symbol for parents, service flags may be displayed by anyone in the service members' immediate family and by organizations they are affiliated with, such as employers, schools, churches and clubs. They can be displayed only in times of war or hostilities.

Several organizations embrace the service flags as a symbol. American War Mothers (founded 1917), American Gold Star Mothers (1928), and Blue Star Mothers of America (1943) all take patriotic pride in the service flag, and each of these nonprofit groups has been chartered by Congress. Public service is their common goal -- they emphasize patriotism and non-sectarian, non-political support for service members and their families.

These groups are very active today. Each organization has chapters in several states and they organize many projects to support the troops. For example, Blue Star Mothers of America's "Operation Shoe Box" delivers packages of morale-boosting items such as candy, toiletries, snack food, writing supplies, games, magazines and many other items that service members are happy to get from home.

American Gold Star Mothers and American War Mothers do similar projects focusing on memorials, Memorial Day remembrances and on assisting families of fallen service members. In addition, these groups have funded lodging near hospitals for wounded troops' families, assist veterans in their dealings with the Veteran's Administration and volunteer in VA hospitals.

All these groups are symbolically united by the blue and gold stars of service flags and perform great service in caring for troops, their families and one another.

Lapel pins and jewelry are another way to show that one has a relative in military service. The examples on display are from World Wars I and II. Like service flags, they are authorized by the U.S. Government and have appeared in many different forms. The Gold Star pin, denoting a family member killed in service, is given by the Department of Defense.

Aircraft change the battlefield

In the First World War, aircraft became valuable because they could see beyond the front line. Reconnaissance and artillery observation affected decisions on the ground. Once that information mattered, opposing forces had reason to attack the aircraft gathering it. Fighters, defensive armament, and increasingly specialized missions developed around this contest over observation and freedom of movement.

The aircraft were fragile by later standards, but their crews worked inside a rapidly expanding military system. Training, maintenance, replacement aircraft, photography, communications, and weather reporting supported each sortie. Improvements in engines and armament changed tactics, while the pressures of combat exposed weaknesses that might have taken much longer to discover in peacetime.

Personal stories should be read alongside those systems. A uniform or a named aircraft connects the war to an individual, but the individual depended on many others and operated under constraints that skill could not eliminate. Aircraft from opposing sides show how designers answered similar problems in different ways. The later military collections in Dayton and at Udvar-Hazy reveal what endured: the need to gather information, protect friendly forces, move people and supplies, and coordinate action across distance. The scale changed enormously; the relationship between an aircraft's design and the job it had to perform remained fundamental.