Gold Star Mothers Day
September 30, 2007
Peter Allegretta and the Putnam County Joint Veterans Council dedicate a memorial statue to all Gold Star Mothers.
MY ADOPTED GOLD STAR MOM
LINDA DRIZA
PHILADELPHIA,PA.
"MISS YOU MOM"
Linda Driza
Gone but not Forgotten
November 2001
I will miss her Dearly!
Doc & Linda
11/11/1997
WE MET IN WASH.D.C. AT OPERATION LZ/DC
15TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WALL!
HER SON & I WERE BOTH MEDICS IN NAM
"SHE WAS A WONDERFUL/FUN/ENERGETIC/FULL OF
LOVE"MOM
STAN DRIZA
MEDIC WITH THE 2/27TH WOLFHOUNDS
CuChi,Vietnam
KIA DECEMBER 22,1967
Doc met Stan for a brief moment in '67'
CLICK ON LOGO ABOVE
Doc,
I have attached a poem you might wish to add
to your web page.
I lost my son, combat medic Keith Allen Campbell,
DSC, BSM, PH 8 Feb 1967 in Vietnam.
I will always miss him. Esther
B.Campbell Gates, San Antonio, TX
OLD GOLD STAR BRIDGE HELD MANY
MEMORIES
The local chapter of the Gold Star Mothers formed in the early 1930s.
The photo above is believed to have been taken in the 1930s or early
1940s.
The members are (L-R/seated): Mrs. John Sherman, Mrs. Godfrey Kah and
Mrs. Julia Heiland; (standing)
Mrs. Anna Nettleship, Mrs. D.W. (Minnie) Williams, Mrs. Walter Pence,
Mrs. Richard Hayner, and
Mrs. H.A. (Buelah) Fogt.
A few motorists heading south of Sidney on County Road 25 A take the
suggested detour across the Great Miami River past the
jail, but most elect to continue southward and go up Sulphur Heights
Hill, bypassing the rapidly concluding construction project
that will result in a new bridge over the river. To most the site is
but another construction nuisance
to be left in the rearview mirror, amid a cloud of dust.
Few realize that the ceremony marking the opening of the original bridge
in 1933 caused over 5,000 people to march from downtown
Sidney there to pay tribute to a group that always pays the ultimate
sacrifice in wartime, but is now largely forgotten: the Gold Star
Mothers. Many will remember this Veterans' Day on November 11 at the
bridge, when the new structure is rededicated, and the
surviving Gold Star Mothers recognized. This is the story of the Mothers
and how the bridge came to bear their name.
When the battlefield sounds of The World War (as World War I was then
known) faded away, numerous veterans groups such as
the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars were organized
to commemorate the memory of those who had
died in the great conflict. Formed of those who survived, these groups
honored their comrades in arms routinely on such occasions as
Memorial Day and Armistice Day. The healing process for them had begun.
For another group, the broken hearts would never heal.
Gold Star Mom
The banner was small,but the star was large,
The color of a blue, night sky.
She hung it in the window with trembling fingers
And tried hard not to cry.
He was so young to go far away
As all soldiers have to do. She knew that danger
Lurked everywhere,
As she touched the star of blue.
The weeks went by, the months rolled on
She knew he would not die.
Her faith in God held her head up high.
In her heart she sang a song.
But the battles raged. The news was not good
Why did so many have to die? She was cold,
And she felt terribly old
As the day came that she faced with dread.
When a knock on the door
Shattered her life evermore,
And the blue star turned to gold.
Esther B. Campbell Gates
The International Society of Poets, has awarded their OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT
IN POETRY
award to Board Member Esther Gates, for this poem. This work
will be published by the Gold Star Mothers of America
in their next publication. It has also been published on the
“Poetry of Arlington Cemetery.com” web page.
Andrew Chernak creation
GOLD STAR MOTHERS STATUE
Is it true that Hillary Clinton refused to meet with a
group of American Gold Star Mothers?
No. This story passed through several people before being
reported by NewsMax on May 26, 2001 and the details were lost.
The two mothers who visited Washington did not have an
appointment with the Senator and she was not in her office on that day.
The NewsMax article did not get the story correct and
we deeply regret the misunderstanding about
Senator Hillary Clinton. Senator Clinton greeted us gratiously
on Gold Star Mothers Sunday, 2005.
THE NEWS....
It's Monday, I am doing laundy thinking of you my dear son
I hear a car pull up and I go to the door to see
I see the two men in uniform
My heart begins to race
Thoughts of no, no, no, go away, please go away
Oh God, let it not be my son
He is so young, no I am not done loving him
I open the door and they say we are sorry...
NO NO NO I scream
They continue, the President of the United States
regrets to inform you of the death of your son
The rest of their words falls on deaf ears
I feel my heart breaking so badly
I fall to the floor saying...
my son is no more....
Kerry "Doc" Pardue
Gold Star family members ride in Milwaukee,Wi.
2005 Vets Day Parade
The Staten Island Ferry
had a boat in the 1937 series named Gold Star
Mother,
in honor of the nations GSM's.Here are two
photos from
The Staten Island Ferry by George W. Hilton,
published in 1964.
Thanks Joseph D.Korman for allowing me to put
the story & photos
on this Gold Star Moms site..
In South Ferry Slip next to the President Roosevelt
(Teddy)
Copyright © 1998 Joseph D. Korman
Passenger Loading Good view of the pilot house
and name.
Copyright © 1998 Joseph D. Korman
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Gold Star Mothers: Helping
Others Help Themselves
By Rudi Williams
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 21, 2000 -- "I think before
we send young
men and women anywhere to fight, we'd better
be ready to
take care of them when they come home," Mary
Wheeler said.
"I don't mean just token appreciation. I mean
take care of them."
With tear-glazed eyes, Wheeler said sadly that
she
sometimes sits and wonders where America would
be today if
young men and women had refused to fight "when
we were
first starting our country."
"Where would we be? What would we be doing?" asked
Wheeler,
president of American Gold Star Mothers Inc.
She still
grieves over the loss of her son in Vietnam more
than 32
years ago. She's devoted the past 31 years of
her life
thanking veterans and service members for their
sacrifices
-- and invoking other Americans to do the same.
Members of Wheeler's group are mothers whose son
or
daughter died on active duty. Gold Star Mothers
got their
name from a practice that began during World
War I of
families hanging flags emblazoned with a dark
blue star for
each living member in the service and a gold
one for each
who had died. Mothers whose children are listed
as missing
can also join the organization.
"By helping others, I helped myself," she said.
"All
veterans are my boys and girls. It's what we
imagine our
son or daughter might be doing, or what their
life would be
like if they were here now. The main thrust of
our
organization is to help our veterans and mothers
whose sons
or daughters didn't come home.
"There are not many members in our home chapter
here in
Washington and they're all getting old," Wheeler
said. "We
have members across the country who are 100 years
old and
several in their 90s." She estimated the group
has about
2,000 members nationwide.
HISTORY OF GOLD STAR MOTHERS' PILGRIMAGES
The Gold Star Mothers have 28 "departments" nationwide.
States with large memberships, such as New York,
are
separate departments. Others with fewer members
have
combined; California, Hawaii, Arizona and Nevada
are one
department, for instance, and Georgia and South
Carolina form another.
Gold Star Mothers, she said, let veterans know
that
somebody cares. The mothers visit patients in
Veterans
Affairs hospitals and ensure they receive gifts
on holidays and special occasions.
"We give them a hug to let them know somebody
cares,"
Wheeler said. She is living at the Washington
headquarters
chapter home this year to help Jean K. Penfold,
the
national service officer, who is ill.
"I did get involved, mostly because I don't want
anyone to
forget what freedom cost us," she said. "We walk
these
streets, go to the store, go to the movies --
we do all of
this because someone has bought that for us,
and it's a
price none of us can repay.
"We need to realize what our responsibilities
are. We say
'freedom,' but freedom carries with it a great
responsibility -- to see that we never forget
our past. If
we forget our past, we're going to make the same
mistakes
all over again. I don't think any of us want
to do that."
SONG BEING PLAYED IS WRITTEN
BY RON HEALY
SUNG BY: DAVE HUMMEL
OUR GOLD STAR MOMS
VISIT DOC'S SITES BELOW