Kingwood, West Virginia. (October 9, 2024): America owes an eternal debt to Gold Star families who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. In this photo by National Guard Cadet Ayden Norcross, Gold Star family members paint canvases during the annual West Virginia National Guard Gold Star Families Weekend Retreat. The last Sunday of September is recognized as Gold Star Mother’s and Family’s Day.

A ”Gold Star” family is one in which a member has died or was killed during a war. The designation dates to World War I when families displayed small banners with either a blue or gold star outside their homes. A blue star was displayed for every immediate family member serving in the armed forces. If their service member was killed while serving in the military, the family placed a gold star over the blue star to let the community know of their loss.

In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established Gold Star Mother’s and Family’s Day and by 1947 the Gold Star Wives was established. Although the exact number of Gold Star families today is unknown, there are thousands of new Gold Star families from recent conflicts. According to a 2019 Military Times article, more than 16,000 troops have died in non-combat circumstances and more than 7,000 died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars alone. They join thousands of living Gold Star Family members who lost loved ones in both World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and Desert Shield/Storm.

It is hard to put into words a nation’s gratitude for the sacrifices these families have made for us. President Abraham Lincoln expressed this sentiment best in a consolation letter to Mrs. Lydia Bixby who lost five sons in combat during the Civil War. Lincoln wrote in part:

“I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming…. 

“I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom.”

Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
A. Lincoln.