EXISTING CRITERIA: The following is the existing criteria and definition for the Gold Star & Next of Kin Lapel Buttons (Gold Star Pins) and 'Gold Star Family' title as awarded by the Department of Defense:
The Gold Star Lapel Button (also called the Gold Star Pin) was designed and created in 1947 for certain family members of those who died in combat in World War II.
The Gold Star Lapel Button is a gold star on a field of purple surrounded by laurel leaves. According to federal law “the military departments shall provide a Gold Star Lapel Button to each of the immediate family members of service members who lost their lives while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States, while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force, while serving with friendly forces engaged in an armed conflict in which the United States is not a belligerent party against an opposing armed force, as the result of an international terrorist attack against the United States or a foreign nation friendly to the United States or as the result of military operations while serving outside the United States as part of a peacekeeping force.” Families of those service members who died by suicide or from a medical emergency outside deployment are not, by law, Gold Star family members but may qualify for the Next of Kin Lapel Button. According to federal law, "the Gold Star Lapel Button shall be distributed to the widow or widower (remarried or not), each parent (mother, father, stepmother, stepfather, mother through adoption, father through adoption, and foster parents); each child, each brother, each sister, each half-brother, each half-sister, each stepchild, and each adopted child of the service member.”
NEXT OF KIN LAPEL BUTTON Approved in 1973, the Next of Kin Lapel Button (also referred to as the Next of Kin Pin) is provided to the families of servicemembers who lost their lives while serving on active duty or while serving in a drill status as a member of the National Guard or Reserves but not KIA. The Next of Kin Lapel Button is gold, with a star within a circle of sprigs of oak. According to the Department of Defense (DOD), A Survivor’s Guide to Benefits, “The star within the circle commemorates honorable service and the sprigs of oak refer to the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force.”