Quilt pays tribute to war fallen

PHOTOGRAPHER: Kelly de la Rocha

A quilt featuring the names of 24 Capital Region service members who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 is on display at the New York State Military Museum.

A tribute to local American Gold Star Mothers and to the fallen service members, the quilt was created by the Capital Region Chapter of Blue Star Mothers of America Inc., a group of mothers who have or had children honorably serving in the military.

The message the quilt is meant to deliver is, “Remember those that gave their all,” said Janet Moran, president of the Capital Region Chapter of Blue Star Mothers of America.

The quilt, which took the Blue Star Mothers group three months to complete, features alternating squares of stars and stripes. Each white star on the quilt is embroidered with the name of a service member. Overlapping every white star is a gold star, which features the name of the service member’s mother.

The American Gold Star Mothers Inc. is a group of mothers of fallen service members. The Blue Star Mothers group presented the quilt to the local Gold Star Mothers at a luncheon Sept. 24.

“They were very pleased,” said Moran, “because one of their concerns is that their kids are going to get forgotten.”

Moran, whose son, Michael, is in the Army, hopes there will be no more fallen servicemen or women and thus no need to add additional stars to the tribute quilt, but if there are additional Capital Region casualties of war, her group plans to create a fabric runner to hold those names.

The quilt will be on display at the state Military Museum for at least six months, Moran said.

The museum, located in the Saratoga Springs Armory at 61 Lake Ave., houses more than 10,000 artifacts that relate to New York state’s military forces, the state’s military history and the contributions of New York’s veterans. Artifacts date from the Revolutionary War to Desert Storm.

The quilt complements a recently opened exhibit on the New York National Guard since Sept. 11, 2001, said Courtney Burns, the museum’s curator, in a news release.

Part of the exhibit honors the 32 soldiers of the New York Army National Guard who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.