The Silver Star Families of America was organized to remember, honor and assist the wounded and ill of our Armed Forces in any way we can. We primarily do this by issuing Silver Star Banners and Certificates to all the wounded and invalid that request one.

The tradition of the Silver Star Banner for the wounded and ill goes back to 1917 when people would sew over a Blue Star with silver thread to indicate to the world they had a wounded Soldier in the family.

This tradition slowly died out and there was never a “real” separate Banner for our wounded and when Congress officially recognized the Blue Star and the Gold Star Banner the Silver Star was not included.

By law, the Blue and Gold Star Banners cannot be altered so The Silver Star Families of America, (SSFOA), designed, manufactured and distribute the first stand alone Banner for the wounded and ill.

We have distributed thousands of Silver Star Banners to our wounded and ill and our Silver Star Flag flies at many military hospitals, V.A. facilities and Combat Support Hospitals.

We are not connected to the Silver Star Medal; we are strictly a Banner organization. And we are different from the honorable Military Order of the Purple Heart because, by tradition, we recognize the ill as long as it originated in a war zone. (This includes but is not limited to, Agent Orange, Gulf War Syndrome, PTSD and TBI)

For the last 2 years, we have asked everyone to remember our wounded and ill on May 1st, Silver Star Banner Day.” This year, 46 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and over 175 cities and towns across the country signed proclamations or letters in support of Silver Star Banner Day. http://www.silverstarfamilies.org/SilverStarDay2008.html

Many states and cities have made May 1st the permanent day to honor our wounded and ill and many states have declared the SSFOA Silver Star Banner as their “official” symbol to remember our wounded and ill. http://www.silverstarfamilies.org/STATES-DECLARE-FLAG-BANNER.html

And as our organization has grown we have developed many programs to assist our wounded children including: Hear 4 You, an instant message program where we listen to the concerns of our deployed and returning children: The Honoring Hungry Hero’s program where we provide food cards to the wounded that are tired of hospital food: The Hand in Hand program where we assist in providing hand held games to the wounded to help improve hand/eye coordination and many other programs.

We are a VAVS Committee Board member and we also try to support all homeless stand downs and all the poly trauma units in the country. We also supply testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

We are grateful for the support of the Free Republic and its members across the nation and we will continue to do our best to honor ALL our wounded and ill.

Please go here to sign up for our newsletter:

www.silverstarfamilies.org

God bless

V/r

Chief Steve Newton (ret) Founder SSFOA 525 Cave Hollow Rd. Clever, MO. 65631 stevenewton69@hotmail.com www.silverstarfamilies.org

Note:

The Silver Star Banner is 8.5 x 14 inches with a red outline, a white inner outline, a blue center field with a Silver Star in the middle.

The SSFOA is a 501 c 3 non profit organization

All financial information can be located here: http://www.silverstarfamilies.org/Financial-Information.html