Battalion Indian Head Patch
During World War I the Fifth and Sixth Marines fought in France as the Fourth Marine Brigade of the US Army's 2nd Infantry Division were forced to wear the Army's uniform. The Marines had only the eagle, globe, and anchor on their soft covers to distinguish themselves from their Army brothers-in-arms. As this did not sit well with the Marines, a patch was designed to distinguish them from their counterparts. A black shield with one five-pointed star and an Indian head with full war bonnet was selected. It is said that the black was for mourning and respect for their casualties, the shield for defense, and the star for the Second Division Commander, Brigadier General John A. Lejeune, and the Indian for General Lejeune's nickname "Old Indian." Another source says the patch was derived from a U.S. Coin in circulation at the time.
General Lejeune himself gave a somewhat different history as to the origin of the patch in his 1930 autobiography "The Reminiscences of a Marine." He states; "There was no inferiority complex about the Second Division. We knew that we were second to none, but also that we were better than any! So we adopted the star and Indian head as Division Insignia, the Indian head representing its fighting ability, and the star its spirit or espirit de corps. It was, I think, the First Division of the A.E.F. (American Expeditionary Force) to wear insignia."
"We carried the idea out, too, to its logical conclusion by providing a different background for each regiment, each Battalion, and each separate detachment."
The Sixth Marine Regiment used the same design in a diamond shape instead of a shield. The color of the background on which the star was placed shows the battalion: black, headquarters; green, supply; purple, machine-gun company; red, First Battalion; yellow, Second Battalion; and blue, third battalion.
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“The next forenoon we went to Oldtown.... The Indian is said to cultivate the vices rather than the virtues of the white man. Yet this village was cleaner than I expected, far cleaner than such Irish villages as I have seen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“[University students] hated the hypocrisy of adult society, the rigidity of its political institutions, the impersonality of its bureaucracies. They sought to create a society that places human values before materialistic ones, that has a little less head and a little more heart, that is dominated by self-interest and loves its neighbor more. And they were persuaded that group protest of a militant nature would advance those goals.”
—Muriel Beadle (b. 1915)
“I sing a hero’s head, large eye
And bearded bronze, but not a man,
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—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)