At 100 years old, Blue Star flags convey family sacrifice, pride
MEQUON, Wis. — It usually hangs in a front window, wordlessly conveying sacrifice, pride and service to country.
It also means a loved one is not home because they're serving in uniform during war time.
The Blue Star Flag was created 100 years ago by an Ohio father whose two sons were serving on the front lines in Europe before world wars required numbers. It caught on and quickly became a symbol of a child serving in the armed forces. In 1918 President Woodrow Wilson approved a gold star to be worn on mourning arm bands for mothers who lost a child serving in uniform.
Though the arm bands didn't catch on, the banners did, with families sewing gold stars over the blue stars on their banners as casualties mounted during World War I.
To commemorate the centennial of Blue Star Flags, a collection of Blue Star and Gold Star memorabilia will be displayed at the Howard J. Schroeder American Legion Post in Mequon on Saturday. The event will include a lecture by the owners of the collection, Kris and Mark Hutson.
"This has become a passion to bring awareness of the service flag and educate people about them," said Mark Hutson of Cedarburg, who served in the Army as a paratrooper and drill sergeant during the 1980s.
The collection includes several large flags with many blue stars flown by churches, factories, communities and universities to honor members, workers, residents and students serving in the military. There are posters such as one of a mournful puppy sitting on top of a Navy uniform with a gold star flag in the background and the words "because somebody talked!" A display case is filled with Blue Star and Gold Star pins as well as sweetheart jewelry, pins given by service members to their girls back home to remember them.
Next to the jewelry case, Kris Hutson laid out colorful fringed pillow cases with blue star flags on the front.
"This would have been sent home to mothers who would put in a pillow. What's so nice is there was so much support for the war effort," said Kris Hutson.
The hunt for memorabilia
The Blue Star flag collection started after the Hutsons, whose hobby is antique collecting, purchased an old dresser at an auction. When they opened one of the drawers they discovered a rolled-up Blue Star banner. They wondered about the family who displayed it. Then the Hutsons began searching for more Blue Star and Gold Star memorabilia, finding things in antique stores, flea markets, auctions and online.
Mark Hutson bought a cardboard shoe box in 2014 at a small antique store in Paterson, N.J., and found a trove of fascinating keepsakes kept by the Bruce family during World War I when three sons served in the military. Two of the blue stars on the banner rolled up in the shoebox were covered with gold stars after a 24-year-old son died at Camp Dix on Oct. 3, 1918, and a 22-year-old son was killed two weeks later during the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne in France. The box included letters Elizabeth Bruce wrote to her sons and the Gold Star armbands she wore.
Another part of the display is dedicated to the Borgstrom family of Utah, the only four-Gold Star family in America during World War II. While the fate of the five Sullivan brothers is well-known — all five Iowa brothers died in the sinking of the USS Juneau — the Borgstrom family's sacrifice has largely been forgotten.
Four of the five Borgstrom brothers serving in the military during World War II died within five months of each other — 28-year-old Clyde was killed by a falling tree while clearing an airstrip on Guadalcanal on March 17, 1944, 30-year-old LeRoy was killed while carrying a wounded comrade to safety in Italy on June 22, 19-year-old Rolon, a B-24 tail gunner, died in a bombing raid on Aug. 8 over Germany, and Rolon's twin, Rulon died 17 days later from wounds he received in an attack in France.
Display cases for each Borgstrom brother show their photos, medals, insignia and biographies.
With so many Americans serving during World War II, Blue Star and Gold Star flags were ubiquitous — it seemed like homes in every neighborhood across the nation flew them. But their popularity waned during the Korean and Vietnam wars as support for those conflicts ebbed. The banners once again began to show up in windows during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Nicole Taugner flies a Blue Star flag in her home in Norfolk, Va. The Grafton native received it last year in a ceremony at the Mequon American Legion Post in honor of her husband Jason, a Petty Officer 2nd Class serving a 6- to 9-month deployment in the Navy's 5th Fleet.
"I'm looking at it right now. It hangs in the front window of my house," Taugner said in a phone interview. "Every time I look at it, it gives me pride. For someone willing to recognize us as a Blue Star family, it meant a lot to receive a flag."
Follow Meg Jones on Twitter: @MegJonesJS