A Gold Star Service Flag is presented to the family of service members who died while serving in the US Armed Forces. Each gold star represents an individual life, and one group of volunteers is working hard to tell each of their stories. Stories Behind the Stars (SBTS) was founded in 2019, and to date, their volunteers have collectively memorialized nearly 50,000 of those who died during WWII. Their stories are attached to Fold3® Memorials and can be viewed in our Stories Behind the Stars collection.

These Memorials contain stories of valor and heroism. One example is that of Capt. James McDonnell Gallagher. Gallagher enlisted in the US Army and served in the Philippines, where he trained troops from the Philippine Army. Gallagher was there when Manilla fell to the Japanese and in Bataan at the time of the US surrender on April 9, 1942.

Gallagher died on April 9, 1942, but it wasn’t until later that his family learned the details. A fellow soldier wrote to Gallagher’s family, saying he was with their son at the time of his death. A group of US and Filipino soldiers had been captured on April 8 and interrogated by their Japanese captors. They were forced to march for 10 hours without food or water. Gallagher was very ill and seemed to be suffering from malaria. His condition worsened throughout the day and evening, and he died the following day. His remains have never been recovered. The details surrounding Gallagher’s life, military service, and death have been captured by an SBTS volunteer, ensuring that future generations will remember his sacrifice.

Among SBTS’s impressive recent accomplishments is the completion of stories for each of the 8,700 WWII soldiers buried at Arlington National Cemetery. They are also in the process of documenting stories for each of the fallen from the 100^th Bombardment Group, whose experiences have been the subject of the recent miniseries Masters of the Air.

How can you help? SBTS needs volunteers! You don’t have to be a professional writer or military historian (though some are). Most volunteers are regular people (young and old) who want to participate in a project that honors the memories of America’s Greatest Generation. SBTS still has 421,000 more stories to write to complete its mission. According to one volunteer, “Anyone can tell a story.” To learn more, visit Stories Behind the Stars. To read the heroic stories of America’s WWII fallen, explore our Stories Behind the Stars collection today on Fold3®.