Author: Fred Childs
VJ Day Honolulu
Thanks to John S for the video link. Hooah
The Story of the POW/MIA Flag
You see it everywhere—the stark, black-and-white POW/MIA flag—flying in front of VA hospitals, post offices and other federal, state and local government buildings, businesses and homes. It flaps on motorcycles, cars and pickup trucks. The flag has become an icon of American culture, a representation of the nation’s concern for military service personnel missing and unaccounted for in overseas wars.
From the Revolution to the Korean War, thousands of U.S. soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors have been taken prisoner or gone missing. But it took the Vietnam War—and a sense of abandonment felt by wives and family members of Americans held captive—to bring forth what has evolved into the nation’s POW/MIA symbol. Continue reading
The Path of the Warrior
Thanks to all who have served The United States of America in military service. May God bless you and heal you.
22nd Infantry Regimental Crest
Crest
The regimental crest is very symbolic in nature.
- The white represents the color of the old infantry, the past.
- The blue represents the color of the new infantry, the present.
- The embattled partition line, across the center, is for the five wars in which the regiment has taken part.
- The crossed arrows represent the 5 Indian Campaigns the regiment participated in.
- The “Sun in splendor” is the Old Katipunan Device from the Philippine Insurrection.
- The shape of the crest is for the War with Spain, being the badge of the V Corps, to commemorate the 22nd Regiment being the first unit to land on Cuban soil in that war.
“Deeds not words”
- The motto mirrors the Regimental history of doing what is right and getting the job done, regardless of the price. The Regiment has always been steadfast, loyal, and dependable. The official motto was approved in 1923, along with the Regimental Distinctive Unit Insignia.
Notable members
- Ernest Hemingway was with the 22nd Infantry Regiment during World War II when the unit saw action from Paris through Belgium and into Germany.
- Seven soldiers received the Medal of Honor while serving in the 22nd Infantry Regiment, including James Kephartduring the Civil War, Bernard McCann and Julius Schou during the Indian Wars, Charles H. Pierce and Charles W. Rayduring the Philippine-American War, Macario Garcia during World War II, and John E. Warren, Jr. during the Vietnam War.
- Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. (18 July 1886 – 18 June 1945) was an American Lieutenant General during World War II. He commanded the 22nd Infantry Regiment in 1938. He was killed during the closing days of theThe Battle of Okinawa by enemy artillery fire, making him the highest-ranking U.S. military officer to have been killed by enemy fire during World War II.
Thanks to Charlie Hooah
INNOCENCE LOST
INNOCENCE LOST
by Gary Jacobson © today in May 2015
I’m just a lonely soldier fighting in Vietnam.
Now a grizzled veteran fighting man
But when I came in-country
I was America’s golden boy, Zin loi…
Life surrounded by loving family in Elysian fields
Foisted into an ocean of storms hellmouth
Not ready for the life Nam yields
Embroiled in war of humanities drought
Gung-ho naïve
Vietnam much more than I could ever conceive
Yet filled with optimistic exuberance
I’m childishly unaware of Nam’s potence.
I lost youth’s bright light
I don’t know where
Somewhere In-country firefight
So into bleakest jungle I solemnly stare…
All innocence long lost
Abruptly in killing fields tossed
Looking for dusky men
Whose life mission’s to harm me
To bring me pain in monsoon rain
With fiery bullets punctuate me..
Out there in verdant disarray roaming
Dedicated to the precept of my dying…
Danger always hovering above my head
With skulking foul specter of death
Painfully of all forgiveness bled
Hanging above my every bated breath…
That wily VC knucklehead.
Who knows when the master of death will call
Whether this very minute life will amend
Whence cometh the shrouded pall
Maybe tonight the war will life rend
Maybe as I eat, will swarthy men
To Fiddler’s Green send
Maybe as I sleep will hell descend…
My brothers beside me sleep
With angels to keep
Around the next bend in the trail
Will sweet killing deliver me
Dead as a doornail
To end me
In this NVA infested lair
What moved behind that bush there
Quiet danger loiters in the tree-line
Oh this l’il camping trip sublime
Waiting in shadow to kill me…
From life to set me free…
All I did was fight wagering life to rid
Gone to war for the oppressed
To bring them sweet liberty…
To save a world from evil obsessed
For this, life holds striking memory
Now held close with terrors to bide
Cloistered way down deep inside…
Yet lined with great pride
Fallen brothers appearing in grim reminder
Forever meditating of a far off time
Escaping the grim reaper
Besting fated foes in combat’s rhyme.
Mysterious Memorial
Thanks to Fred Yetka, Hooah.


