Where did the tradition of the "Yellow ribbon" for soldiers come from?

Question

Ten oints for the First correct answer.

Christin K, got it, Ten points!

Answer 1

From the film "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" starring John Wayne, which was based on an old folk song of the same name (ca. Civil War era.) Tony Orlando and Dawn had a song later using the same image of the yellow ribbon meaning "Welcome Home" to soldiers.

Answer 2

The Song tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree I think. By Tony Orlando and Dawn

Answer 3

I forget what war is was but a military man was coming home from war and sent his wife a letter. The letter said that he has been gone so long he didn't know if she still wanted him back. He instructed her to tie a yellow ribbon around a specific tree near their house. So he could see it from the bus. If it wasn't there he would stay on the bus and never return back home. If it was there he knew she still loved and wanted him home. He asked another passenger to look for him as he was nervous and did not want to look up. Then the other passenger saw the tree which was full of yellow ribbons and said go home you have nothing to worry about.

Answer 4

Originally it wasn't military tradition. It became popular because of a song by Tony Orlando and Dawn - "Tie a yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree." Was a song about a guy coming home after serving a prison sentence. If he saw a ribbon on the oak tree, his girlfriend/wife was indicating she wanted him back; no ribbon meant to "stay on the bus and forget about us."
It eventually was used to indicate support for our military returning "home."

Answer 5

The tradition came from the song "tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree". The song was referring to when inmates would be released from a prison in texas and returned to their families, and the yellow ribbon will stay on the old oak tree until they come home. This was adapted to fit the military during Vietnam.

Answer 6

From the song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" by Tony Orlando and Dawn.

Answer 7

It's a story meant to encourage young naive men to go off and die in a war.

Immature men want to die for a cause - mature men want to live for one (Catcher in the Rye)

This is from Wiki:

The symbol became widely known in civilian life in the 1970s. It was the central theme of the popular song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", performed by Tony Orlando and Dawn, as the sign a released convict requested from his wife or lover, to indicate that she still wanted him and that he would therefore be welcome to return home. He would be able to see it from the bus driving by their house, and would stay on the bus in the absence of the ribbon. He turned out to be very welcome: there were a hundred yellow ribbons.
From the Library of Congress:
In October of 1971, newspaper columnist Pete Hamill wrote a piece for the New York Post called "Going Home." In it, college students on a bus trip to the beaches of Fort Lauderdale make friends with an ex-convict who is watching for a yellow handkerchief on a roadside oak. Hamill claimed to have heard this story in oral tradition.
In June of 1972, nine months later, Reader's Digest reprinted "Going Home." Also in June 1972, ABC-TV aired a dramatized version of it in which James Earl Jones played the role of the returning ex-con. A month-and-a-half after that, Irwin Levine and L. Russell Brown registered for copyright a song they called "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree." The authors said they heard the story while serving in the military. Pete Hamill was not convinced and filed suit for infringement.
One factor that may have influenced Hamill's decision to do so was that, in May 1973, "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" sold 3 million records in three weeks. When the dust settled, BMI calculated that radio stations had played it 3 million times--that's seventeen continuous years of airplay. Hammill dropped his suit after folklorists working for Levine and Brown turned up archival versions of the story that had been collected before "Going Home" had been written. [1]

Answer 8

Tony Orlando and Dawn! actually yellow kerchiefs, not pant stripes of soldiers in the civil war.

Answer 9

Tony Orlando and Dawn

Answer 10

A soppy Sonny and Cher song from the 60's.
Maybe it was Tony and Dawn.