U.S. Service Flags, Two Blue Stars, WWI Commodore Stephen Decatur Family Collection.
This red and white wool flag is a service flag used to indicate family members who are serving in the US Armed Forces. This example is from the Lear-Storer-Decatur Families, used to indicate that two members were serving in the United States Navy during WWI. It was acquired with a WWIl counterpart, ZFC3548.

Service Flags were and are an official flag of the US Government, whose use and display, although widespread and largely at will, were actually controlled by the Secretary of the Army, who was tasked with overseeing their design, construction and manufacture.
Service Flags like this one were generally used to bolster morale on the homefront. They were finished with heading and grommets for outdoor display on poles or display lines. If a member of the family was killed, the star that was representative would be changed to gold.

This Service Flag was part of a of historical cache of flags descended from various branches of the Lear-Storer-Decatur family which included items from Sir William Pepperrell Baronet and John Storer (who were both part of the 1745 expedition to Nova Scotia capture Ft. Louisburg), Colonel Tobias Lear (General Washington's Aide de Camp and personal friend), Benjamin Lincoln Lear (son of Tobias Lear), Commodore Stephen Decatur (nephew of his famous namesake Commodore Stephen Decatur, 1779-1820), Rear Admiral George Washington Storer (nephew of Tobias Lear, 1789-1864), Ichabod Goodwin ( Governor of New Hampshire), and Admiral of the Navy George Dewey.

The accumulation was "rediscovered" in the mid 20th Century when the family as a whole decided to sell a barn at Kittery Point, Maine. The barn had served as a repository for a vast amount of historical material that has been passed down through the generations. When inventoried, the barn was found to contain a significant archive of papers, memorabilia, photographs, books, and artifacts including twenty historic flags. The trove was divided amongst the three branches of the family.

The share which had gone to Mrs. Alice Armsden (née Decatur) contained the flags and was kept intact until her and her spouse's estates were settled in 2009. In these estates were flags from some of America's most illustrious naval families - Decatur, Storer and Dewey. The flag grouping consisted of Boat Flags, Ensigns, Signal Flags, Burgees, Rank Flags, Distinguishing Flags, Service Flags and a Yacht Ensign. Among the US flags and ensigns were the following star counts; 13 stars (4), 16 stars, 26 stars, 34 stars (3), 35 stars, 45 stars (2) and 48 stars.

Dating from the early 18th to the early 20th century, the flags were acquired from the male naval officers of the family and preserved by the women of the families, notably Anna Rowell Philbrick Decatur (1821-1906) and Mable Storer, the respective wives of Stephen Decatur, and Rear Admiral Storer. Both women carefully preserved and conserved these flags, and act for which the flags' posterity is forever indebted.

Provenance:Acquired at auction, 2-Day Winter Antiques & Fine Art Auction, 4-5 February 2010, James D. Julia, Fairfield, ME.

ZFC Significant Flag

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