Stones and stars on the Missouri homefront

Missourians with an emotional investment in the war with Iraq aren't only in uniform.

In Neosho, they are parents who rub special gemstones in their pockets to think of a daughter serving in the Army.

In Mexico, they are neighbors reviving blue star banners, staples of the homefront in past wars, to designate families with sons or daughters in military service.

Stones in NeoshoCharity Minor, a graduate of Neosho High School, has trained for years to serve as an Army intelligence specialist in interpreting Arabic and interrogating prisoners.

But that didn't make parting any easier for members of her family, who recently traveled to Fort Campbell, Ky., for a visit before Minor's deployment with the 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division to Kuwait and now, presumably, to Iraq.

Her grandfather came up with a practical idea to help her relatives remember their spiritual solidarity.

He bought a batch of small, shiny green gemstones -- one for Minor, 22, and one for each of her relatives around the southwest Missouri community of Neosho to carry each day.

Her mother, Tina Augustine, makes sure her outfits have pockets.

"That way I can just reach in throughout the day and just by feeling that little stone, it helps me think of her," she said.

Stars in MexicoIn January 1942, a Michigan newspaper helped start the tradition of providing banners with blue stars to mothers of men in military service. The practice has ebbed and flowed through decades of war and relative peace.

Fraternal and veterans organizations are working to revive the use of blue stars to honor military families. Susan Paden is helping coordinate a banner presentation ceremony on Sunday in Mexico, to which area families of 51 service members had been invited as of Tuesday.

"It's important for a community to show support, not only for the troops, for but for their loved ones here at home who are waiting for them," said Paden, who works at the Missouri Veterans Home in Mexico.

The nylon banners, measuring 9 inches wide by 14 inches long, have a blue star in the center of a white field.