By Mike Schoeffel
CP Reporter
At the Sidney E. King Art Center in Bowling Green, there’s a red banner with 16 stars hanging from a window. Fifteen of the stars are blue. One directly in the center, however, is gold.
During both of the World Wars, families would hang these service flags, as they’re called, in their windows to designate the number of family members fighting in the war. This particular flag, with an unusually high number of stars, was likely used by a church or business, according to Wayne Brooks, president of the Caroline Historical Society.
Last Wednesday afternoon, with nostalgic big band music playing from a small black stereo in a room at the art center, Brooks explained the significance of the single shining star. “Whenever a soldier was killed, they changed it to gold,” he said. “I bought it 20 years ago at a military show. The people I bought it from didn’t know where it came from and I don’t think they actually realized what it was. Its unusual to see that many blue stars on one flag.”
The service flag is just one of many historically significant pieces of war memorabilia currently on display at the World War I and World War II exhibit at the King Art Center. The exhibit is being put on in honor of the 75th anniversary of World War II and the 100th anniversary of World War I. It will run through Nov. 2018 — exactly 100 years to the month since the end of the first World War.
Some of the items on display are owned by the historical society, though most of them are on loan from residents of Caroline and nearby areas. Two of these items are a purple heart and a flying medal earned by a 23-year old man named Thomas Haigh.
As Brooks explained, Haigh was a pilot on a bomber. During a mission in Italy, his plane was heavily attacked by German fighters. After three of his crew members were killed, Haigh ordered the rest of his men to bail out as the plane plummeted toward Earth.
Haigh, however, chose to go down with the aircraft.
“He died in the last month of the war,” said Brooks, staring through the display case.
Next to Haigh’s medals is the original copy of a direct wire sent to Haigh’s family informing them of his death. It’s in near perfect condition, as if it were sent yesterday.
The exhibit is full of heart-wrenching stories such at this, true-to-life accounts that reflect the harsh realities of war. Like the New York woman who consistently wrote letters to her brother in the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division during World War II. Her final letter, which her brother never received for what may be obvious reasons, is on display. The words RETURN TO SENDER are stamped on the front.
“It’s not a local story,” said Brooks. “But it’s typical for what a lot of families went through during these wars, so I felt it was meaningful to include here.”
Perhaps the biggest interactive project in the exhibit is the ongoing photo identification of 460 local soldiers. The photos were printed using blocks once owned by the Caroline Progress. They’re framed and on display, and residents are encouraged to come in and identify as many of the old black-and-white portraits as possible.
So far, more than 200 of the 460 veterans have been named, according to Brooks.
That number — 460 — is only the tip of the iceberg. Some, perhaps most, of the Caroline residents who served during the war didn’t have their likeness inked on printing blocks.
“That’s not all of them,” admitted Brooks. “My father’s picture is not in there. My uncle’s picture is not in there. There are quite a few who were left out. [The total number of local residents who served] has to be a thousand or more, at least.”
There is such a wealth of historically relevant artifacts, and accompanying stories, that one could easily spend an entire afternoon in an entranced waltz around the display cases. There’s an Air Force Airs flip book smudged with a pair of lipstick kisses. A 48-star flag. A red cloth Nazi armband. Ration books. A hand-whittled letter opener Brooks father brought back from the Phillipines fashioned from an empty cartridge.
There’s even a coconut from the Pacific that a soldier shipped to his brother in Texas.
“It just goes to show you that the post office will mail anything,” said Brooks.
To Brooks, the overarching purpose of the exhibit is two-fold: it’s a way to “honor those men and women who made a sacrifice for all of us,” as he put it, but it’s also for a means for education. Several months ago, over 400 students from local schools paid a visit.
“It’s important for children and adults who don’t know much about history to see this,” he said. “It’s especially relatable when they take a trip in here and see the names and pictures of people from right here in Caroline.”
Brooks himself recently took a trip, too: to the beaches of Normandy, the location of the momentous D-Day Invasion on June 6, 1944. He saw Nazi bunkers, Utah beach, and even brought back some of the hallowed sand in a jar.
“It was moving,” he said. “To stand there and look out over that beach they came across, knowing that when the ramp dropped [on their ship] they were going to catch hell, that was a really powerful experience.”
Brooks hopes that the exhibit, too, will pack an emotional punch for all who visit.
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