U.S. Service Flag combined with the crossed cannons of the US Artillery.
This small, felt, olive drab pennant is a variant of the U.S. Service Flag which was introduced during the First World War to designate family members serving in the US Armed Forces. This variant bears the US Service Flag combined with the crossed cannons of the US Artillery.
Service Flags were and are an official flag of the US Government, whose use and display, although widespread and largely arbitrary, were actually controlled by the Secretary of the Army (now the Secretary of Defense), who was tasked with overseeing their design, construction and manufacture. This pennant was a civilian produced version.
Service Flag were generally used to bolster morale on the home front. If a member of the family was killed, the star that was representative of the deceased veteran would be changed to gold.
This example was displayed for a soldier named W.J. Schmidt, who mustered for service at Camp Lewis, Washington in October of 1917, was shipped overseas in April of 1918, and returned home in April of 1919. Named Service Flags like this are unusual, while a pair of service flags for two members of the same family (See ZFC1382) is exceedingly rare.
This felt pennant is pressed into a brass bar for display
Provenance: Acquired at Wesley Cowan auction, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2001.
ZFC Noteworthy Flag
Item is Framed
Sources:
Service flag, Wikipedia, 2 May 2012, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_flag
Service Flag (U.S.), Flags of the World, 2 May 2012, from: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us%5Esvc.html
Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection
