We've seen them in countless war movies, these American flags that drape the coffins of service members who died in the line of duty.

We've seen stone-faced soldiers lovingly fold them into triangles and present them to weeping mothers and widows.

Every day, workers at Goodwill Industries' Allapattah plant produce 430 of the flags, each destined to cover the coffin of a U.S. soldier.

Burial, or interment, flags are ``the most important American flags being made because they honor someone who's given their life to protect their country,'' said Dennis Pastrana, South Florida CEO of Goodwill Industries.

Congress dictates how the flags are made -- from their 5-by-9 ½-foot dimensions to their white headers, golden grommets and other specifications.

Each year, the Goodwill workers, most of whom have some sort of disability, make about 80,000 individually boxed flags.

Goodwill, an international nonprofit, also has a Department of Defense contract to manufacture camouflage fatigues, fleece jackets, garrison caps and overalls for those serving in the U.S. armed forces.

A LABOR OF LOVE

In the room where the flags' star fields are made, a mammoth metal contraption unrolls 140 spools of white thread, pulling it toward rows of fat needles under the watchful eye of Carlos Guillet.

Back and forth, the embroidery machine moves large pieces of navy-blue cotton against the needles, which can create 50 perfect five-point stars in three hours.

``We work hard to make them perfect for the soldiers'' said Guillet, 34, speaking over the equipment's earsplitting clatter. ``They do a lot for us. We want to give them something nice.''

Upstairs, the flags are completed in a big room bristling with the appendages of industrial sewing machines, each controlled by one person.

Here, the metallic din isn't quite as loud. Flag parts move in a zigzag pattern from one end of the room to the other and back. Workers take care to not let the fabric touch the floor.

``It's a sign of respect,'' Pastrana said.

First, eight-year employee Agathe Dagrin feeds red and white cloth strips through a roller, sewing their edges.

At the next station, employees Zaily Opizo and Cecilia Melendez push the strips along, sewing them into blocks of seven, nine, 11 and finally 13.

``The soldiers who die at war deserve our best efforts,'' said Melendez, 47, an El Salvadorean native who immigrated to the United States in 2000 and began working at Goodwill shortly after. ``They're out there fighting for their country.''

A few feet away, workers sit behind the pumped-up sewing machines, attaching the starry blue fields, representing the 50 states, to the striped cloth, which represents the country's original 13 colonies.

At a table farther down the line, Jorge Luis Proenza and Elizabeth Herrera stretch out each flag on a table between them, trimming away the excess on either end.

``I think this flag is a beautiful symbol, but I don't like the reason we make them,'' said Hialeah resident Proenza, 47, who was referred to Goodwill after his diabetes caused retinopathy which made him blind in one eye.

He is grateful to Goodwill for employing so many disabled people. ``Thanks to them I can pay my bills,'' he said.

GIVING THANKS

After several trips around the room, the finished flags arrive at the station of David Benitez, 30, who gently folds them and places them with care into small cardboard boxes.

``I love the American flag,'' said Benitez, a Miami Sunset Senior High grad who began work at Goodwill 11 years ago as part of the group's partnership with the Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

The California native would have a message for the soldier draped by one of his flags.

He would ``thank them for serving their country. They died for us, with honor.''