In WWII everyone who had a son or daughter in the service displayed a Service Flag in the window.
It is now re-authorized by Congress and available again.
The flag (8 1/2 by 14) is an oblong with a two inch red border around a white field. The center has a blue star on the white field, one for each son or daughter in the Armed Forces. It is supported on a dowel and there is a gold braid with which to hang it in a window.
If the child died a gold star was sewn over the blue star leaving a small border of the blue around the gold star. Hence the term "Gold Star Mother."
If you have a child in Armed Forces and would like to display a Service Flag - I was given this number where they may be obtained : 1-888-453-4466
Ask for the "window flag" or you might get quoted the price of a huge display flag.
Sorry I haven't prices but I received my flag as a gift.

I had never even heard of these, wow... and last night I watched the movie "My Dog Skip" and knew exactly what was hanging on the porch of the neighbor kid after he went off to fight in WWII! Talk about synchronicity... Thanks for the lesson!

Hiya wow

I thought I noted a flag filling this purpose in "Saving Private Ryan" and "The Maj" - except they were moreso a Navy Blue banner with a white star for each serving relative.

Same thing??

stales

Hi Stalesy! Haven't seen that kind of flag here in US.
The Service Flag described in my starting post is the only one US Congress approved. Not to say other countries haven't got versions of their own!
Have a tape of Private Ryan but haven't been able to bring myself to watch it yet. A couple of family friends died at Normandy and even though a couple of friends survived the landing it's just one of those things. One thing to read about it, another to *see it play out in front of you. A couple of local vets who were at Omaha Beach were really shaken after seeing Ryan in the thater when it came out.

Thanks for the lesson
Hi FB! You're welcome. Sometimes it's not bad being 73 when you can help out with memories - like the man said : "Everything old is new again."

For what it's worth I found the opening walk through the graveyard in Saving Pvt. Ryan to be more moving than the beach assault scene. Maybe I've just been inured to movie violence and maybe not having any personal connections to the invasion of Normandy have something to do with it.

I found the opening walk through the graveyard in Saving Pvt. Ryan to be more moving than the beach assault

I think it's often true that what hits you hardest isn't what you expect. It's the "little" details that are most real, what's left (that we live with) rather than a detailed depiction of what actually happened.

I'll always remember the bit at the end of the film Oh What A Lovely War where a soldier lies down to sleep alongside his comrades on a grassy hill. The place where each soldier lies becomes a grave with a white cross; then the camera slowly zooms out, to reveal line after line of identical white crosses, continuing to fill the screen but steadily becoming smaller and smaller. More and more crosses appear, until your ability to comprehend what you see collapses.

Needless to say, it's a real cemetery that was shown.

That scene set me blubbing helplessly, and amongst (anti-)war films remains unique on that count.

http://www.goldstarmoms.com/history.htm

I don't remember where I learned about Gold Star Mothers, but they are mentioned several times in the Turtledove alternate history series that begins with the Civil War.

I do remember that there were still houses with these flags in the windows when I was growing up in Tappan NY in the early 1950s, because I remember my father's explaining them to me. If I recall correctly, he said the flags were from WW II, and that there weren't many people displaying them because of their relatives' being in the Korean War. They were generally considered to mark the houses of WW II veterans (and decedents.)

TEd

Thankfully, my son is no longer in the Marine Corps. He got his discharge papers several days ago, but. And this is a really big but. It appears that the Marines reserve the right to yank him back to serve for the next eight years. Will my silver hairs never cease to multiply?

They sell stuff in a bottle for that, Con. I like the single-malt type, mah own sef!