McHenry County honors Gold Star families with new service flag
McHenry County has a new Gold Star flag that was revealed Saturday in memory of fallen heroes from the county.
The flag was unveiled at The Dole in Crystal Lake and has one star for each of the almost 300 fallen heroes in the county stretching from World War I to today. Their names were read aloud during a ceremony to honor them.
The flag is similar to the Blue Star and Gold Star flags. Woodstock resident and U.S. Army veteran Mark Hutson said a woman named Sharon, who didn’t want her last name shared, made the flag.
Hutson said Saturday that the woman put in countless hours making the flag and it was a calling, not a project for her.
“Every stitch and every detail was guided by her desire to honor our fallen. Sharon’s devotion reflects the very spirit of the Gold Star tradition and we are deeply grateful for the gift she has given to this county,” Hutson said.
Mark Hutson returns to his seat after unveiling a McHenry County Gold Star Service Flag during the McHenry County Gold Star Legacies Gold Star Remembrance Day at The Dole Mansion in Crystal Lake on Saturday, October. 3, 2026. (Patrick Kunzer for Shaw Local/Patrick Kunzer for Shaw Local)
Hutson has been working for some time on a project to document all of McHenry County’s Gold Star heroes, and has launched a website, mchenrycountygoldstarlegacies.com, that has profiles about them.
Hutson said Saturday that during World War I families placed small service flags in their windows. The flags had a blue star for every family member serving in the military.
“It was a visible declaration of devotion,” Hutson said, adding that when a service member didn’t come home, a blue star was covered by a gold star.
“There are moments when words feel wholly inadequate, when the magnitude of what we are called to acknowledge exceeds the reach of language,” Hutson said, adding the ceremony was one of those moments. But silence, however reverent, wasn’t enough.
He said the lives of fallen service members and the families carrying them in their hearts “deserve to be spoken aloud in public and in the full light of day.”
Hutson said it wasn’t just unveiling the flag, but honoring the lives, futures, and devotions of the fallen. It is a symbol of every unrealized future, empty seat at a table and every family forever changed, Hutson said.
Gold Star mother Holly Higgins shared her story as part of the ceremony.
Johnson was an explosive ordnance disposal technician - “bomb squad to us civilians,” Higgins said.
Higgins said Johnson ran toward bombs, not away from them. She said he wanted to save lives and was working toward becoming a paramedic when he was deployed.
After Johnson’s first deployment, he came home and stood taller, calmer and quieter, Higgins said. She said being an explosive ordnance disposal tech was good for him.
Higgins said Johnson handed her a flag and didn’t explain what it was, and she didn’t ask.
The next year, he was deployed to Afghanistan. He did not come home, and Higgins recalled that before heading to California for the military funeral, she went inside the house and grabbed the flag.
She said she held it the entire way across the country. But she learned why it was significant during the funeral.
Before heading out to disarm an improvised explosive device, Johnson would put the flag over his chest before putting on his bomb suit. Higgins said those suits could weigh 80 to 100 pounds and the temperature inside could reach 120 degrees.
Johnson strapped on two flags when he was deployed to Afghanistan. One was in front of his heart, one behind it, and one for his mother and one for his wife, Higgins said.
He chose to do it “because of the weight of love he carried in his heart for his family and his country,” Higgins said.
Higgins said she shares that story so people don’t forget her son. She said some time after Johnson was killed, she met Lt. Col. Scott Mann, who had discovered the healing power of storytelling. Mann told her that sharing her son’s story would help her start to heal.
She said the first time she tried to tell her son’s story, the words got stuck in her throat. As she continued to share, it helped her mourn Johnson.
Higgins also said a lot of buildings, parks, and highways are named for heroes, but people aren’t usually familiar with the names or, if they are, what they did to become heroes. And some things are named for Johnson.
“Danny would be mortified if he knew all the things that are now named after him,” and doubly so if he knew his mother was sharing them, Higgins said.
Those include the main street into Vandenberg Space Force base being renamed from California Boulevard to Sr. Airman Daniel J. Johnson Memorial Boulevard. A park where Johnson played in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, when he was a child was renamed to Sr. Airman Dan Johnson Memorial Park, Higgins said.
Plans for the flag, now that it is unveiled, include putting it on display at the McHenry County building in Woodstock, Hutson said.
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Claire O'Brien is a reporter who focuses on Huntley, Lake in the Hills, Woodstock, Marengo and the McHenry County Board. Feel free to email her at cobrien@shawmedia.com.