All of these symbols are personal to me in some fashion. They are not inclusive, many got lost. Many are now.....forgotten.
There ain't nothing in the world for symbols like the military at war. You learn real fast like to read the symbols or you get in trouble, deep trouble.
Symbols on the hat, the shoulder, the chest, the sleeve, etc. tell you instantly about how important the wearer is, how long they've been doing what they are doing, what part of the military they belong to, their unit, whether or not their "superiors" think they are brave, their training, their history, their wars, and all sorts of stuff.
Some symbolism tells about historical cowardice. Some says this division stands their ground. Some say don't mess around here. Don't drive down this road. Some are found in the wrong place at the wrong time because those who wore them didn't give a damn.
Some are worn in full bright colors rather than regulation O.D. and Black, another don't give a damn.
Some symbols tell about relationships between units. Some show disdain. Some get you in trouble. Ignore some and you die.
Some are full of pride. Some have secretes.
Some symbols just mean you've been away from home too long.
Addendum for the record:
The MI insignia was quite interesting. On top was the five petal rose with blue petals for truth and honor. Beneath the rose, i.e. sub-rosa, were the secrets hidden behind the light of the ancient Sun symbol of Hermes, Hermes who saw and heard everything. Within Hermes symbol is the compass rose for everywhere, and beneath the Sun was the upturned dagger, a symbol of danger, vigilance, death and protection. The gold color was for Hermes, the Sun, and victory. Who would ever guess it would mean so much?
7 comments:
Can we blame General Dan Butterfield? The character who designed the corps badges for the Union in the Civil War, to help organize the confustion? Same guy who wrote Taps? Or his contemporary, General Gibbon, who prescribed white chaps and black Hardee hats for his vaunted Iron Brigade? Perhaps the current insignia concept has to do with the 'band of brothers'..how the military folk recognize even strangers..Big Red One, Screaming Eagle, Tropic Lighting. My very first experience with the genre was the local parade in my Wisc. home town...the Red Arrow (32nd) division and its Nat. Guard insignia. Then, as a raw recruit failing to recognize the difference between a PFC and Lieutenant and earning a few dozen push-ups...later the 'inside' humor about my fire-breathing dragon shoulder patch
with the strange Latin scroll..
Elementus Regamus Proelum. I asked what it meant and was informed it was "Up Your Ass-With Bugs & Gas". Then...when I was wearing ChemCorps brass at a remote CBR site, one of my contemporaries was sent on covert assignment to a Pacific island. As cover, he had to exchange his 'crossed retorts' for some other branch..his choice. He picked Chaplain Corps! So, interesting subject..sure piqued my memories. :)
So you were one of those dudes that fed me the dragon shit of CS and Chlorine? I spent 12 weeks in basic at Leonard Wood. Lovely place. Cause I been an officer in the AF and had been down at Boloxi (for two weeks) for their basic they decided I could teach basic training in the Army (they were real short on people). So I got to learn bayonet real good (using a hundred pound M-14) and taught that while coporaling a squad through basic at Wood. Refused Army OCS that really pissed them off. But MI officers were not allowed to be anything but administrators in the ASA and I wanted more "hands on", so I chunked the NCO route even and went into a specialty.
You know even though it has been 40years, posting this shit on line feels like I've unzipped my fly in public.
I 'enjoyed' Leonard Wood for a few weeks in the early spring of '64 and was a victim of the CS shack and M14 as well. Got yanked from snow bivouac, commissioned and sent off to McClellan...where they gassed me again a couple times. Speaking of basic, you weren't that Nazi DI from D Co, 3rd BN, 3rd TR REGT, were you?
'Speaking of basic, you weren't that Nazi DI from D Co, 3rd BN, 3rd TR REGT, were you?'
Ah...er...uh...no wasn't me.
I went through Wood June-August '66.
I was in 'C' Company. We were out in the tents and the DI over me was a full blood Kiowa named Kappa(Phatka). He was a damn warriors warrior. By his way of thinking if any of my men ever had to redo anything I had to redo it with them. In that I had 4 National Guard in my platoon who wanted to screw it off and get back to the good life in Chicago. They made my life hell for the first week, then, with the DI's blessing, I made life dangerous and unbearable for them. For example me and they went through the live fire crawl four times on four sucessive nights until the could get through it with out stopping or "crying" or threatening my life. By week four they all had a political/ a.k.a. medical discharge and had gone home. Back then the NG was a political way out of the military.
I still have their names in a notebook of mine.
Ft. Leonard Wood had the rockiest
livefire terrain I ever saw...small wonder the PX sold so many feminine napkins..we had em on our elbows & knees. We had a lot of Chicago types as well..a black kid who was minor league shortstop (after a couple weeks he was moved to the LW baseball team). I went in RA, and at least we got through the chow line..in 64
the mess sgt. had you call out your serial#...if you had an NG in front, you were sent to the back of the line. Now days they send them to Iraq a few times....
Yep, went in RA too. Beat the draft you know.
We were a little more subtle. The NG's were in real sorry shape, so in the chow line I made everyone go through the parallel ladders. The NG's almost never made it through the first time, and thus were perpetually at the back of the line for chow.
Those weren't rocks on the live fire, they were just Missouri sand grains.
I ducked taped towels on my elbows and knees. Remember that OD Army duck tape. I also remember that the first night one of my NG's pushed the wire up high enough to get sparks from the 30 cal.. (line of fire was supposed to be set at 30 inches, it wasn't) That's how I got "permission" to run them through so many times.
I haven't accessed this part of my brain almost since the days these things happened.
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