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Over several years of collecting, I've encountered a small handful of similarly constructed 48 star flags which feature black overprinted designs on the stripes to the right of the canton.  They are very scarce.  One such flag in the Rare Flags collection features an advertisement for a fishing reel.  Another I've seen features a baseball advertisement, and another another an ad for Winchester rifles.  Of all of the 48 star flags that I've seen, none has ever featured an overprint of a World War II military unit.  That degree of rarity in itself makes this flag extraordinary.  With that in mind, the particular unit featured on this flag makes this flag nothing short of astonishing.  The unit commemorated on this flag is the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the famed 101st Airborne Infantry Division.  The Regiment, commanded by Col. Robert F. Sink, is best known for the portrayal of its E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the book "Band of Brothers" written by historian Stephen E. Ambrose and subsequently made into a modern classic television series of the same name by producers Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

The Regiment, known as the Currahees, formed at Camp Toccoa, Georgia in 1942.  The Regiment's first action of the war was Operation Chicago, a component of Operation Overlord whereby gliders dropped elements of the 101st Airborne Division, including the 506th, behind enemy lines in the pre-dawn hours of D-Day, June 6, 1944.  Their most famous action during Operation Overlord was the assault by E Company on Brécourt Manor, led by 1LT Richard Winters.  In September, 1944, the unit participated in Operation Market Garden, which, at the time, was the largest airborne operation ever launched.  After a brief period of recovery in Paris, the unit next participated in the Battle of the Bulge, being encircled by enemy forces at Bastogne along with the whole of the 101st Airborne Division.  Besieged, isolated and undersupplied during the coldest months of the winter, from December 1944 to January 1945, the 506th was assigned to hold the eastern sector of the Division line.  One third of 1st Battalion--nearly 200 men--were killed fighting delaying actions against the German advance.  Replaced on the line by 2nd and 3rd Battalion, the 506th held the line until the U.S. Third Army, led by General George Patton, broke the 101st out of Bastogne in February, 1944.  With the majority of its heavy fighting behind it, the 506th was reintroduced to the front lines in April, 1944, and participated in the push across Europe into Germany and the subsequent occupation of Austria.  Although the Regiment prepared for deployment to the Pacific theater, the war ended in 1945 before they redeployed and the unit was deactivated in 1945.  Although the unit was later reactivated after the war as the 506th Airborne Infantry Regiment in 1948-1949, again from 1950-1953, and finally in 1954, these later troops did not receive airborne training, nor were they authorized to wear the airborne patch above the 101st Infantry Division Screaming Eagle patch.¹

This flag surfaced in a grouping of items, including an Army Class-A dress uniform, in the estate of a 2nd Lieutenant of the 506th Regiment found in the mid 1990's in Bergen County, New Jersey. Although the specific company and name of the lieutenant who owned the flag is unknown, the flag was special enough for him to frame it and keep it among his personal effects for the remainder of his life. The uniform is World War II vintage, and the presence of the 506th Infantry Regiment unit designation pin (pictured left) and airborne wings on the uniform, as well as the Airborne patch above the Division patch seen on the flag's overprint, are clear evidence that the flag is associated with the World War II unit, and not a later period reorganization of the unit.  Whether this flag was made and distributed to soldiers during their formation and war years (1942-1945), during their homecoming in 1945, or as a post-war reunion commemorative is not known.  The flag's 48 stars indicates that it was made some time between the unit's formation in 1942 and the introduction of Alaska to the Union in January, 1959. 

¹ Summarized history from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/506th_Infantry_Regiment.