Hello, this is my first post and hopeing someone can help me. I was givin a flag that was placed on my Grandfathers, brothers casket who's plane was shot down on a bombing raid the day after D-day. The question I have is, the flags gold stars, what is the meaning? My first thought was it was stained, but at a closer look I found all the stars wher discolored. A friend of mine said its not discolored that they are gold stars and it had meaning but was not sure what it was. This question has bothered me for years and have yet to find an answer. Is it just stained or gold stars?

Don't know why I didnt think it before but woudnt the strips be discolored to if it was stained? They are still white so I guess im left with the question of the meaning of the gold stars. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[american_flag_uk]

have you a picture or two of this flag??
can u provide us with some on here? if ur not sure how to put pics on here email me some pics (click my name AMERICAN_FLAG_UK in the corner and go to email) so that i can take a look at this !

[z5w]

I also had a flag with gold stars that was our family flag when i was a child. It was my grandfather's who was a WWI vet. We used this flag to bury my father a WWII and Korean War vet. Some how it went missing in the family and I had one made special from a flag company to replace the original. This is the flag that will be used for my brother and I when we pass on. My grandfather believed that gold stars were used on battle flags. I don't know if this is true and have never heard or read anything to support this statement.

[NAVA1974]

Gold stars were only used on silk military colors when they were hand painted. I have a 48 star flag where the stars have discolored from white to "gold" or rather "tan." The stripes are not discolored because they are different material, cotton bunting. The discolored stars had sizing to keep them stiff while sewing them into place and that chemical eventually caused the stars to turn tan or brown or "gold".

[buggra]

So the stars are not really gold, but faded white. Thanks for the info.

[MikeR]

A lady described to me a flag presented to her Mother in honor of her Father's death on the Bataan Death March. The flag has 5 gold stars randomly spread among the other 43 white stars. In researching the meaning of the gold stars for her, I came across a blog that stated that many American flags, used for military funerals during WWII, were made in France. These flags were hand stitched and many included varying numbers of gold stars mixed with the white stars. One man stated that he had a flag with 38 gold stars and 10 white stars. With the situation as it was in the United States and Europe at the time, quality control was not a big issue. One explaination of the gold stars was perhaps the French workers were aware of the Gold Star Mother's flag and added the gold stars as a similiar honor. If anyone can verify, add to or deny this explaination, it would be appreciated.

[NAVA1974]

Please see my answer from December 6 of last year toward the top of this page on the Forum. The 48 star flags were made by placing a sheet of white cotton "star" material on a table. Then the blue fabric of the canton was placed on top. Next were placed 48 sized cotton stars in the correct location in a pattern of six rows of 8 stars. These stars were lightly glued into place. Then the stars were sewn onto the front of the canton and the stitching also attached the white sheet onto the back of the canton. Finally, the white sheet was trimmed off the back, leaving 48 white stars showing where they were stitched into place along with the stars on the front side. The "gold" stars were just stars that were randomly placed on the front along with the rest of the 48 - they may have come from a different dye lot, were sized differently, or for unknown reasons just aged differently and turned tan or "gold" compared to other stars that did not age. According to this theory, all the stars on the other side should be similar in color to each other. Nick