MEET YOUR MERCHANT: A call to service

David Smith is actually hoping for a business slowdown.

Not overall - just in the gold star service flags that prompted the start of his business.

Smith's flag-making business is a direct response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"After al-Qaida attacked, everybody wanted to do something," the owner of Carson Flag Store said.

After the attacks, Smith found old flags in his father's garage, including one with a red border, a white field and a star in the center - not the most exciting flag, but one with immeasurable weight behind it.

The Son in Service Flag, as it was known, has one star for every service member that a family had serving overseas. Blue means the service member is serving. Gold means a son or daughter in the military made the ultimate sacrifice. And Smith knew how he would give back.

He started the business in his garage in the months following the attacks. He contacted the Department of Defense for approval on making the flags and started selling them across the country and donating $1 from each sale to Blue Star Mothers of America. Then, in December 2001, Smith received his first request for a gold star to cover the blue. He was at a loss.

"Look, how do I charge someone for a gold star when they already paid the ultimate price?" he said in a recent interview in his shop.

Since then, he said, he's donated about $75,000 in labor and materials to the families of gold star recipients and expanded his small garage operation to a store front on Research Way in Carson City that sells custom T-shirts, mugs, trophies and more - though without losing its primary focus of patriotism.

Smith said he is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, and while that plays a role in his patriotic urge, it's not everything.

"When I was in the service, it wasn't in wartime. But even then, being overseas, my parents would worry," Smith said. "Now, the people serving are in combat" and, while even he was prepared to die for his country, it's much more real for current service members and "they need to be recognized."

Nonetheless, "It'll be a wonderful day when we never have to make another gold star flag," he said.

He said he will keep his flag store, with its variety of wares and its in-house post office, operating as long as he can - it's work he enjoys and he wants to be loyal to him employees.

"This is something I can't stop doing because it's not me working for somebody, it's me working," he said.