A Gold Star mother, her son, and a flag

Holly Higgins’s son left her a flag. She found out a year later why

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May 18, 2026 4:41pm EDT

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What Danny carried inside his bomb suit

A Memorial Day story from Tales of American Spirit

Holly Higgins's son Danny came home from his first deployment to Iraq with a small American flag in his hand. He gave it to her without explanation, and she set it on the buffet next to a picture of him.
A year later, Danny was deployed to Afghanistan. He didn't come home. He was killed in October 2010, at twenty-two.

At his funeral, the story behind the flag finally came out.

“Names can fade, but stories stick.”
— Holly Higgins, Tales of American Spirit, Episode 17

READ THE FULL STORY

Hear Holly tell it

Holly tells about the afternoon in her garden the week before Danny’s swearing-in, after she had spent the whole summer praying for the words to talk him out of enlisting, when a different sentence came out of her mouth instead. That story, the flag story itself, and several more are in the full episode on Tales of American Spirit.

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Memorial Day, May 25

On Memorial Day, the American flag flies at half-staff from sunrise until noon. At noon, it’s raised briskly to the top of the staff and flown there until sunset, to honor those still living.

For the rest of the year, our flag flying days page is a quick way to know when to fly your U.S. flag, the half-staff days, and the days to fly the POW/MIA flag alongside.

SEE ALL FLAG FLYING DAYS

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