Gold Star families shed new light on heavy honor
It has been a symbol of honor that no one wants.
The gold star denoting a family member who died in combat dates to World War I, but before last week, the phrase “Gold Star family” wasn’t as widely known as it was during World War II.
Then came the controversy surrounding Donald Trump and Khizr and Ghazala Khan, who lost a son, Army Capt. Humayun Khan, to a suicide bomb in Iraq in 2004. Khizr Khan, speaking at the Democratic National Convention, challenged Trump’s policies, saying, “You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”
After Trump lashed out at the Khans, the Veterans of Foreign Wars was among the many who came to their defense, with VFW President Brian Duffy saying, “Election year or not, the VFW will not tolerate anyone berating a Gold Star family member for exercising his or her right of speech or expression.”
But how did the gold star become a symbol of the ultimate sacrifice?
During WWII, a practice developed across the country: Families displayed flags featuring a blue star, a sign that a family member was fighting in the war. Some flags would display more than one star.
Just how the next tradition began is unclear, but when a soldier died, the blue star was replaced by a gold one.
In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson approved a recommendation by the Women’s Committee of National Defenses to wear a black armband with a gold star — an update on traditional signs of mourning. It’s believed Wilson coined the term “Gold Star Mother.”
Over time, two types of service flags were created. One banner had a white background, red border and blue star. The other had a white background, blue border and gold star.
In 1928, 25 mothers met in Washington, D.C., to establish a national organization called American Gold Star Mothers Inc., which still exists.
In 1947, Congress authorized the military to issue gold star lapel pins to families of those who had been killed in combat. In 1973, Congress approved a pin for families of service members who died while on active duty but not in combat.
During WWII, the star flags were common sights across the country, displayed in windows.
That changed during the Vietnam War. During that unpopular conflict, when many Americans associated soldiers with government policies, many saw little value in displaying a blue or gold star flag.
Those attitudes have changed in recent years.
“It’s been a slow build to get its respect back,” said Richard Parker, a public policy lecturer at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. “But there was a dissociation within the American public. They were disillusioned with the military after Vietnam.”
Parker credited Army Gen. Creighton Abrams, a prominent commander during the Vietnam War, with helping to restore the military’s reputation, especially as it moved away from the unpopular draft of the Vietnam era.
After Abrams, Gen. Colin Powell’s support of President George H. W. Bush’s “Operation Desert Storm” caused the military’s approval rating to soar, he said.
The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, further enhanced the military’s standing.
Although the practice of displaying blue and gold stars has been revived since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the images still remain a mystery to some.
The Republican Party in North Carolina sent out a July 27 tweet criticizing Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine for wearing what it said was a lapel pin of the Honduran flag when he accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for vice president. As a young man, Kaine spent a year as a missionary in Honduras, and the tweet called his flag pin shameful.
But Kaine was wearing a blue flag pin to acknowledge his son, a Marine. The North Carolina GOP later apologized.