Hoyden R.

Another from Rudyard Kipling

"A Song to Mithras"

'Hymn f the XXX Legion: Circa A.D. 350'

MITHRAS, God of the Morning, our trumpets waken the Wall!

' Rome is above the Nations, but Thou art over all!'

Now as the names are answered, and the guards are marched away,

Mithras, also a soldier, give us strength for the day!

Mithras, God of the Noontide, the heather swims in the heat,

Our helmets scorch our foreheads ; our sandals burn our feet.

Now in the ungirt hour; now ere we blink and drowse,

Mithras, also a soldier, keep us true to our vows !

Mithras, God of the Sunset, low on the Western main,

Thou descending immortal, immortal to rise again !

Now when the watch is ended, now when the wine is drawn,

Mithras, also a soldier, keep us pure till the dawn!

Mithras, God of the Midnight, here where the great bull dies,

Look on Thy children in darkness. Oh take our sacrifice !

Many roads Thou hast fashioned: all of them lead to the Light,

Mithras, also a soldier, teach us to die aright!

One of my favorite passages from Virgil's Aeneid. I spent four years in Naples, Italy. And as military brats are wont to do, we did some exploring where we weren't meant to. The Caves of Cuma and the underground passages to Lago D'Averno were one of those late night jaunts.

The Sibyl's prediction of war:

Within the cave, and Sibyl's voice restores:

"Escap'd the dangers of the wat'ry reign,

Yet more and greater ills by land remain.

The coast, so long desir'd (nor doubt th' event),

Thy troops shall reach, but, having reach'd, repent.

Wars, horrid wars, I view- a field of blood,

And Tiber rolling with a purple flood.

Simois nor Xanthus shall be wanting there:

A new Achilles shall in arms appear,

And he, too, goddess-born. Fierce Juno's hate,

Added to hostile force, shall urge thy fate.

To what strange nations shalt not thou resort,

Driv'n to solicit aid at ev'ry court!

The cause the same which Ilium once oppress'd;

A foreign mistress, and a foreign guest.

But thou, secure of soul, unbent with woes,

The more thy fortune frowns, the more oppose.

The dawnings of thy safety shall be shown

From whence thou least shalt hope, a Grecian town."

This one never fails to amuse me. My favorite cousin is a die hard Marine. All four of his children, including his daughter are named after tanks. Bradley, Patton, Sherman and Sheridan Lee. They call her Sherri.

I taught Bradley and Patton this when they were 3.5 and 5 years old so they could sing it to their Dad. They taught it to Sherman and Sherri. My cousin was NOT amused. lol

The Marines, the Marines,

Those blasted Gyrenes,

Those seagoing bellhops,

Those brass-buttoned queens,

Oh! They pat their own back

Write stories in reams,

All in the praise of themselves—

The U.S. Marines!

The Marines, the Marines,

Those publicity fiends,

They built all the forests,

Turned on all the streams,

Discontent with the earth,

They say Heaven’s scenes

Are guarded by—you guess! Right!

U.S. Marines!

The moon never beams,

Except when the Marines

Give it permission to turn on its gleams.

And the tide never rises, the wind never screams—

Unless authorized by the U.S. Marines

The Marines, the Marines,

In their khakis and greens,

Their pretty blue panties,

Red stripes down their seams.

They have thought all the thoughts,

Dreamed all the dreams

Singing, “The Song of Myself”—

The U.S. Marines.

—From “Gismo” a publication for all servicemen in the South Pacific, this pent-up irritation was let out in doggerel “believed to be by a sailor.” May 6, 1944.

Ohhh.... I have been collecting Military poems for the better part of 25 years. I'll try not to innundate you. lol

That being said, my all time favorite military poem is this one from none other than General Patton.

THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY

General George S. Patton, Jr.

Through the travail of the ages,

Midst the pomp and toil of war,

Have I fought and strove and perished

Countless times upon this star.

In the form of many people

In all panoplies of time

Have I seen the luring vision

Of the Victory Maid, sublime.

I have battled for fresh mammoth,

I have warred for pastures new,

I have listened to the whispers

When the race trek instinct grew.

I have known the call to battle

In each changeless changing shape

From the high souled voice of conscience

To the beastly lust for rape.

I have sinned and I have suffered,

Played the hero and the knave;

Fought for belly, shame, or country,

And for each have found a grave.

I cannot name my battles

For the visions are not clear,

Yet, I see the twisted faces

And I feel the rending spear.

Perhaps I stabbed our Savior

In His sacred helpless side.

Yet, I've called His name in blessing

When after times I died.

In the dimness of the shadows

Where we hairy heathens warred,

I can taste in thought the lifeblood;

We used teeth before the sword.

While in later clearer vision

I can sense the coppery sweat,

Feel the pikes grow wet and slippery

When our Phalanx, Cyrus met.

Hear the rattle of the harness

Where the Persian darts bounced clear,

See their chariots wheel in panic

From the Hoplite's leveled spear.

See the goal grow monthly longer,

Reaching for the walls of Tyre.

Hear the crash of tons of granite,

Smell the quenchless eastern fire.

Still more clearly as a Roman,

Can I see the Legion close,

As our third rank moved in forward

And the short sword found our foes.

Once again I feel the anguish

Of that blistering treeless plain

When the Parthian showered death bolts,

And our discipline was in vain.

I remember all the suffering

Of those arrows in my neck.

Yet, I stabbed a grinning savage

As I died upon my back.

Once again I smell the heat sparks

When my Flemish plate gave way

And the lance ripped through my entrails

As on Crecy's field I lay.

In the windless, blinding stillness

Of the glittering tropic sea

I can see the bubbles rising

Where we set the captives free.

Midst the spume of half a tempest

I have heard the bulwarks go

When the crashing, point blank round shot

Sent destruction to our foe.

I have fought with gun and cutlass

On the red and slippery deck

With all Hell aflame within me

And a rope around my neck.

And still later as a General

Have I galloped with Murat

When we laughed at death and numbers

Trusting in the Emperor's Star.

Till at last our star faded,

And we shouted to our doom

Where the sunken road of Ohein

Closed us in its quivering gloom.

So but now with tanks a'clatter

Have I waddled on the foe

Belching death at twenty paces,

By the star shell's ghastly glow.

So as through a glass, and darkly

The age long strife I see

Where I fought in many guises,

Many names, but always me.

And I see not in my blindness

What the objects were I wrought,

But as God rules o'er our bickerings

It was through His will I fought.

So forever in the future,

Shall I battle as of yore,

Dying to be born a fighter,

But to die again, once more.

Amazing to read about your distant cousin and his further job on tv!!

It's astonishing how tricky it is to find such a list or some details about members of the order - theres some quite interesting literature about the decoration, but a resource for all the people who get the order... and the online search of the gazette seems to be also tricky,because I haven't found mr. hurst, although he is still there, as you show me!

About some of the old german decorations and the fellows who got them you find ood resources in the net, but here

regards

westfale

I took the liberty of emailing the kind lady who helped me with my English research to see if she could shed some light on tracking down who has received the M.B.E. She is a retired woman who loves research so I ply her with yearly packages of custom dog collars and harnesses that I've made for her dog, so she is happy to help me research English records. :)

My distant cousin, Percy Thrower also received an M.B.E. for being a gardener. Rather interesting fellow.

Related to the great Percy Thrower, fantastic. The originator of televison gardening programmes with I believe it was called "Gardening Club", in the days when you watched it on a crackling small black and white set and there were only two channels, I can even remember the tune. I know he had a later comeback with the Blue Peter Garden which some yobs went and vandalised. Forget your Charlie Dimmock's, Aaln Titchmarshes and all your new television gardening buffs, Percy was the one and only, a giant amongst later pygmies.

My maiden name is Thrower. I found out I was related to him when I joined a British Genealogy forum asking for help and posted an intro with a photo of myself and my dog. Apparently an American Thrower who was co-owner of a landscaping company and went every where with her black dog (APBT service dog) was just too much of a coincidence. When the ladies found out I designed gardens and planted them and had won awards, that was all she wrote. (Percy went everywhere with his black lab.) One was friends with the Thrower family in Schropshire and helped me find the records I was looking for.

My ex-husband used to get upset when I appropriated areas of his sacred grass for yet another garden. I told him it was hereditary so he might as well get over it.

One would think that they would post a master list of award recipients somewhere on line. I spent nearly 3 hours hunting for a list but came up with nothing. I went to the English Access to Archives site and spent an hour searching there. I found a lovely article about a John Henry Hurst being called a cuckold back in the 18th century though. lol

My distant cousin, Percy Thrower also received an M.B.E. for being a gardener. Rather interesting fellow.

Is there a way to make the pictures that show up bigger without putting them onto photobucket?

I've been resizing them to 640 x 400 or 800 x 600px, but they still show up small.

And another that was embroidered without the benefit of the stabilizer as the back side of the stitching is hidden under the white interfacing.

I found several with black stabilizer on the inside. Notice that this one has backside of the embroidery showing through and they used the embroidery stabilizer to give body to the fabric?

Here is the back of one of Paul's Iraqi Shoulder tabs. I didn't open it up, it came that way.

Notice the lack of stabilizer? This material is heavy enough to embroider without it, but the front does show some puckering.

Close up of the inner construction of the tab above with another tab for comparison.

On the top shoulder tab, note the following;

• The double stitching on the top that was done with a serger, you can tell by the perfect distance between the two rows of stitches and because the underside of the stitches looks like a "chain".
  
• Overlock stitches in black thread below the serged double row of stitches
  
• Good quality cotton twill bottom weight material
  
• Overall superior quality of the piece due to the interior "finish work"
  

On the lower shoulder tab;

• Single row of stitches done on a "home quality" sewing machine. I am guessing a Singer or Brother machine with plastic interior parts by the "wiggles" in the bottom stitches that show. (some stitches veer off, they are not uniformly straight.)
  
• Unfinished edges on the interior
  
• Lower quality cotton/poly blend trigger material
  

This set of shoulder tabs has a tulip type top like some of the ones pictured above. The thread is polyester and a color known as "school bus yellow" by Robison & Anton Embroidery Co.

Notice the quality of the construction, the embroidery and the inner finish work of the tab. See the post below for more details of the inside.

Another example of the same type tab as above. Same embroidery thread, same inner stabilizer, same embroidery digitized pattern for the stars used, same fabric from same dye lot.

Here is an example of the stay stitching that I've seen down the back of some of Paul's Iraqi Tabs. See the little X stitches? Their purpose is to keep the seam pressed open so that the shoulder board can slide onto the shoulder tab with out catching and to keep the stress from wear and tear from pulling open the seam.

These are some of his nicer Iraqi Shoulder boards with a cocoa colored nylon embroidery thread on an olive colored cotton mix bottom weight material with velvet ribbon from Wrights.

And a picture of my class ring on my hand to get an idea of how big the ring is on my midget hands.

Balfour stamp & 10k. Part of the Balfour signature is missing from when I injured my hand by getting stuck in a leaf blower engine and my finger swelled around my ring. The jeweler in town sure loved fixing all the rings I wrecked. lol

The side of my ring with name and the academic seal

Side of ring with enamel crest.

Here is my High School Class Ring, I took shots of a few angles with my ring sitting on my quilting ruler so you can get an idea of it's size. I wanted the school crest, but the ring was too small to fit it and the smallest style that fit the school crest was too large for my small hands. My ring is a size 4.75.

I just took a bunch of pictures of the things that I noticed about Paul's Iraqi shoulder boards. I will post them after I resize them, I need to finish up a few pictures for Paul first.

I would have loved to have seen that pedigree Ulsterman! I've asked several of the well versed dog men that I know and they said a pedigree to 1775 is possible, but not for a German Shepherd dog. The early progenitors were likely another breed used as the foundation of the GSD breed.

When my boss showed me what he paid for the dogs he brought over from Germany and Czech Republic, I gagged. I could not believe what he paid for them. I wasn't sold until I had my hands on the first litters of German Shepherd and Malinois puppies.

Rather interesting topic. Admittedly, I know little about the politics of Ireland, though I should as my Irish Great Grandfather, the one who helped raise me and who I refer to as my "Da" was involved with the IRA. He left Ireland in the 20's, then got booted out of the US during Prohibition. He ended up in Canada running booze into the US via the fishing fleet into Gloucester, MA. (And to think I married a man in the Coast Guard, lol)

I remember Irish boys coming to visit in late June and staying until the beginning of August so the Orangemen wouldn't get them in July.

He died at 104 years old in October 1999. One of these days, I will get his journals and fill in all the blanks from the stories he told me, the things I remember from when he took me to Ireland when I was 5 in 1977 and the stories that other people told me about him.

And here are two more sets of military ranks to confuse things even further!

First, a set of Lieutenant General epaulettes:

And then the Field Marshal epaulettes done in the same style:

I've handled most of Paul's shoulder boards because I -insisted- on putting them into an album to organize them while he was away. I also sew and embroider, so I have a great deal of knowledge about fabrics and garment construction.

A couple of things REALLY stand out to me here.

On the Lieutenant General epaulettes :

• The rough edges on the inside top are overlock stitched. I do not recall seeing that at all when I put all of Paul's into the album or when he has gotten new ones. (I like seeing all the stuff he gets, so he shows me what he gets when he gets mail.) If you flip up that edge, is the stabilizer (white stuff on the inside) stitched to the outer fabric?
  
• The back is angled at the top and bottom verses stitched straight across.
  

On the Field Marshal epaulettes:

• The stabilizer is black. I haven't seen that on any of Paul's collection.
  
• The back is angled at the top and bottom verses stitched straight across.
  

I am not sure what any of that means, but it's just my observation.

I also note that the "stay stitching", little x'es that go down the back center seam to keep the inner seams pressed open so that they don't bunch, move or catch when slid onto the shoulder tabs are not on these either. I am not sure if the stay stitching are on the back of all of Paul's Iraqi shoulder boards, I will have to check, but I noted that they were on a good number of his.

If I can, I'll take pictures of what I am referring to tomorrow so that it makes some kind of sense.

I can't speak for all military colleges, but the Citadel's Alumni Association has the obligation to buy back any rings that are offered for sale on the public market. occasionally they show up in pawn shops and ebay. The cadets at the Citadel pay for and only own 49% of their rings and the school owns 51%. I will post some pictures of mine. Another neat fact about our rings is that Alumni who pass away are given the option of either being buried with it or give it back to the citadel, where the ring is melted down and added to the graduating class's rings. I believe the year that I graduated, we had a '42; '54; '67 grad's rings melted down. Honestly, I can tell you that when I eventually pass, mine is going back to the Alumni association.

Thank you for sharing this. I think that this is really really neat information. I think that the addition of the melted gold from previous Alumnus class rings adds tradition and a deeper meaning to the ring.

I'll take some pictures of my class ring to share.