Military Ring Info

This Operation Iraqi Freedom soldier seems to have it backward. I wonder if the stress of Iraq has gotten to him? He dosen’t seem to realize the time that he is in. This is just one of the many kinds of memories that I have about my time in the military. Sometimes you just have to let go in order to forget about the hard times.

The good times (like this guy seems to be having) are those which will stick with you. That is why so many soldiers will purchase the Operation Iraqi Freedom Custom Ring when they return.

We have a customer in Afghanistan now who can’t wait to get her ring. She wanted us to ship it to her home but after she thought about it she decided to have it shipped to Afghanistan. That is exactly what we will do. As soon as it is ready we will insure it and ship it to her.

The “Harlem Hellfighters was the name given to the 369th Infantry Regiment of WWI. The unit was also known as the “Black Rattlers.” This unit was the first black regiment in the US Army and was constituted on Jun 2, 1913 in New York where it began its training. The unit was never assigned to combat duty with the US Army. It was assigned to reinforce the French Army and saw all of its combat duty with the French Army (I think that the US Army just did this to get rid of them).

The 369th accounted well for itself in battle and received a total of 1 Medal of Honor, the French Croix de Guerre, many Distinguished Service Crosses, and 121 Legions of Honor. The regiment was awarded the Croix de Guerre with a Silver Star by the French government for its valiant service during the war. A military ring can also serve as an award. It is the medal of honor that you award to yourself for all of the trouble and hardship that you endured during your time in the military service. It is also a reminder of all of the good times that you enjoyed. 

In my opinion this is probably the most famous battle that the Marine Corps is known for. The two things that help to make it famous are the picture on the left of marines raising the American Flag on Mount Suribachi and the many movies that hollywood has made depicting this battle.

This battle was fought from the 19th through the 26th of March 1945. It was the first battle fought during WWII against the home Islands of Japan. Iwo Jima was very well defended by a force of 22,000 Japanese defenders. They were well dug in and even had dug in their artillery emplacements. The Japanese were desperately defending their homeland against the unavoidable defeat which was to come. Iwo Jima had many hidden bunkers and gun emplacements. It also had 11 miles of underground tunnels which had to be taken. You can see that this was an extremely tough nut to crack, but our marines were up to the task.

In the end the Japanese suffered 21,703 KIA and over 1,000 Japanese POW,s were taken even though arial bombing and naval gunfire had little to no effect on the defenders. Our marines had to gut it out and take the island foot by foot in extremely tough fighting conditions.

The battle was fought by the 3rd, 4th, and 5th marine divisions, those division logos are all available to anyone who would like to create a Marine Corps Commemorative Ring. The last 3 Japanese fighters hid out in the caves of the island and did not surrender until 1951.

Audie Leon Murphy was one of the most decorated war heroes of all time. I’m sure that all army folks know about him so lets educate some of the rest of those who may not be enlightened to the truth about this great soldier.

 Audie Murphy was born in Texas and spent his early life as a poor farmboy.  He was the middle child of a very large family (12 children) and had to do whatever work that he could to support the family after his father left them. He lied about his age to get into the army and served with the 3rd Inf Division during WWII as an infantry soldier. I remember many of the movies that he made after he left the army which portrayed his exploits in the war. He made a large number of westerns also before he was killed in a plane crash in 1971. If you want to see a movie account of Audie Murphy in action I suggest that you watch the most famous of his war movies titled “To Hell and Back.”

Audie Murphy was a Medal of Honor recipient along with 32 other awards for bravery. Many times we have had Infantry soldiers to put a tribute to Audie Murphy on the custom military ring that they have ordered. 

Women will be women and men will be men. Yes for those of you in the military sometimes the world dosen’t understand that we may be soldiers but deep down inside we are still people. I wonder what exactly does this woman have in mind? She may have heard about that big shopping mall in the sky. She has her purse and I’m sure that she is prepered with the appriopriate credit cards, check books, debit cards, etc. I wonder if she is wearing her pilots ring or if it is in the pocket book also?

Sometimes being in the military is a super tough job. I learned a long time ago that you may as well make every situation as much of a fun thing as you can. It really helps to pass the time. I have so many fun memories of the military that I couldn’t begin to tell them all.

I certainly hope that she finds that big mall in the sky real soon. I also hope that it will have adequate airplane parking space.

Henry Ossian Flipper was born a slave in Georgia but became one of the first blacks to graduate from West Point Military Academy in 1877. He was asigned to the 10th Cavalry as a Second Lieutenant and later became the first black officer to command regular troops in the US Army. He was eventually set up, court martialed, and dishonorably discharged for embezzlement when some money became missing from the fund that he oversaw.

Mr Flipper fought hard for the rest of his life to have the court martial overturned. The court martial was never overturned but was reduced in the 1970′s. He was pardoned in  1999 by president Bill Clinton.

I have seen many different works of art and figurines that were designed to honor this great soldier but I have never seen a military service ring design done for him. One thing that I did see when I was stationed in Fort Sill Oklahoma was a drainage ditch which he built which causes water to drain uphill!!

I don’t know ow he did it but he did. This was a true warrior who never received the honor that he deserved.

To all of my fellow brothers and sisters who serve in the Armed Forces of this great nation we would like to take this opportunity to send a shout out to our new Commander in Chief, President Barack Hussein Obama II. We certainly hope that under his leadership that our great nation will once again begin to flourish. We would like to see the unity of not a black, white, or any other race of America but a United States of America. We realize that we must all pull together to make this Nation as great and respected as it used to be.  

The election of this Nations first African American president certainly speaks volumes about where we have come from although we still have a very long way to go. This is certainly an event which will go down in history and we are priviledged to be the generation to see it come to pass. A military commemorative ring, or commemorative coins would be a wonderful way to create a heirloom that will last for generations.

If the world only knew the half of what really goes on with our soldiers they would be surprised.

They say that a picture says a thousand words, (so does a custom service ring), let me tell you what this picture says to me. This soldier is tired of the situation and wants to get it over with. If just blasting every possible enemy combatant away would do the trick, well thats exactly what he is prepared to do. He dosen’t have anything against Iraqi’s but since most of the enemy that he fights look Iraqi he is making a general statement. This soldier wants to go home but he knows that he will not go until all of the enemy is defeated and the victory is won.

The field artillery fire support team can do some real damage when they are used correctly. I remember my days as an FSO when we used to bring smoke on the head of the OPFOR (opposing forces) in Fort Irwin CA. Just ask anybody from that time about the problems that the 3rd ID used to give the OPFOR. We skinned them up many times with artillery. Ask them and if they say otherwise tell them that Cedric said that they are lying.

My observers were super aggressive and they would clean your clock son. Then they would write down your name. We were so bad that we would kick our own behind just to show you how its done. We would be glad to do it again just in case you missed a move. So when you absolutely, positively, have to get something destroyed in a hurry just call on FIST and we will do it for you. I remember the guys in that unit of mine everytime that I pull out my gold army ring and look at it there are so many stories to tell that it would take me months to try to remember half of them but they were good times. FSO was the hardest job that I have ever had in my life, but it was the most rewarding when everything worked well and we could see the effects of our many sleepless nights.

Unlike some of the other war stories and tall tales that you have seen on this site this one is true. This happened to yours truly back around 1983 and hasn’t been told to many people.

While I was in the army my unit was tasked to support the testing of the then new MLRS (multiple launch rocket system.) This testing took place in the desert corners of southwest Texas and southeastern New Mexico. One night while we were in the field I was ordered to drive down the road and assist another unit. My boss didn’t know an exact location for them but knew that they were on a certain dirt trail which he showed me on the map. Meanwhile since we all had to be out of the desert by the next morning, I was to just go back to the base camp after I had finished helping them which was down the same trail 25 miles and hang a right for 5 or so more miles. Well as fate would have it they were not in the place when we got there. (I believe that the reason that my boss couldn’t get in touch with them is because they had skinned out early.) Also as fate would have it the jeep broke down and we didn’t have a radio to call for help. The only thing that I could think of was to walk back to base camp so I started walking, and I walked, and walked, and walked. I walked all night with a pack of coyotes following me. I probably would be still walking if not for some MP’s who just (as fate would have it) happened to be on a field exercise and just happened to be on the same trail. What I found out is that the trail had shifted for miles since the map had been drawn up. I would have ended up walking 40 to 45 miles if they had not found me. This is just one of many memories that I have of my time in the military and I’m sure that you have many memories also. This is the reason that the military ring is a good instrument to use to tell your story of service.