221st Unofficial Crest

“Nice job on the unofficial 221st Crest in upper left of the website... I designed it during my stint as admin officer...Here are two of the early prototypes I had made...one was an embroidered patch... the other laminated metal... Since the 221st was part of the 160th Signal Group I used the dragon & Fleur-di-lis from their crest... Finally decided to ditch the camera & mike icons in the film frames...I had papasan go out on the local economy to get them produced...Papasan also singlehandedly built that memorial in front of the orderly room...

- 1Lt, Don Fedynak

1Lt, Roger Hawkins created the image on the left. “I got a reference photo from Capt. Bill Ruth. (Capt Ruth was the last CO of the 221st in Vietnam) Then I built a virtual 3D model of the crest.  In other words I can move this around in 3D space and produce an image from any distance and any angle with lighting from any time of day. It is done in an Architectural program called SketchUp with a little post production sweetening in Photoshop.”   Roger interpreted the badge as follows: “The film strip speaks for itself. "Equis Mile Verbe" is Latin for "equals a thousand words." The dragon signifies Vietnam. The Fleur-di-lis is a traditional symbol of light.”  

Photographer Ron Sivers (left) at Detachment C proudly wears the unofficial crest

(Pictured at right) Shortly after arrivng incountry, I contracted pneumonia. It was about 3 a.m., perhaps 4, and rockets started flying into Long Binh. I was awakened by the high-pitched whine. In my half-sleep I calculated the vector of their flight and determined they would not land anywhere near us, and rolled over.  Berkowitz, my roommate (well you know this Paul) shouted at me to get under my bed. Bobo! Get under your bed!. I said, they're landing all the way over there.  Finally, I got out from under the blanket and crawled under the bed. The a/c was going full blast. I found it hard to breathe; my lungs labored. Sure enough, I had pneumonia and ended up in the 24th evac. I noticed everyone else had little signs over their bed that included a crest of their unit. I called graphics from the hospital and asked that they prepare a card with our crest on it. Eventually it arrived. Everyone else had a small card, perhaps 5x7 with a small crest. I had a crest that measured about 24x30.  

 - 1Lt Robert Swartz

VC rockets or too much a/c?

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