“I’m no war hero, I’m just an ordinary guy who did my job and was lucky to come home.” Technically, he might be right. But just like millions of other young men in 1941 Newt enlisted to go and fight for his country.
He didn’t storm fortified bunkers, or take on machine gun nests single-handedly. No, his job was more mundane.

He was a pilot of a C-46 transport plane in the Pacific theatre of operations. He carried ammo, personnel, food, and letters from home in. He often carried the wounded out. You can ask him about the typhoons, the conditions they faced, or even the humorous stories of his buddies and him.

But don’t ask him about the bronze star he won, or any of his other medals. He won’t tell you how he won them.

Before the war, Newt was a graphic artist for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. “It was a good job, and I made thirty-five dollars a week” he laughs now. But after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Heisley knew he had to enlist.

After piloting cargo planes and serving as part of the army of occupation in Japan, Heisley returned home to his wife and college sweetheart, Bunny. He also returned to his work as a graphic artist, this time for Hayden Advertising, an agency in New Jersey.

One of the agency’s clients was the Annin Flag Company, which at the time was the world’s largest maker of flags. In 1971 a group from Jacksonville, Florida, called the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, contacted the agency.

They represented some of the thousands of American servicemen who had been lost in action or imprisoned in Vietnam, and they wanted a flag they could use to promote their message. Heisley gladly accepted the assignment to design the flag.

Thinking back on his days of flying that cargo plane over the vast Pacific, he and his crew had often talked about what they would do if they went down in the ocean and the enemy was the first to arrive. “I began to wonder what would happen to me if I was taken prisoner. I wondered how I would conduct myself. And I thought about how the worst thing that could possibly happen would involve being taken prisoner and being left and forgotten somewhere.

“As I began to work on the rough sketches for the flag, that experience came back to me, and I wrote down the phrase, ‘You are not forgotten.”

The phrase stuck. Then all Heisley needed was a visual image. He thought he would use a figure in silhouette, and in the background would be a guard tower. For the silhouette, Heisley used his son Jeffrey, then twenty-four, who had just returned from marine training.

The client loved the design, and in time, POW/MIA groups from other American wars embraced the flag. Now the flag flies for nearly ninety thousand missing.

Over the years, Heisley’s POW/MIA flag has become nearly as ubiquitous as the Stars and Stripes. For the past three decades, it has flown throughout the country he fought to defend. In 1988 it flew over the White House. The next year, it became the only flag ever permanently displayed in the Capitol Rotunda.


Now you know the story behind that honorable flag....

Story from "Faith Under Fire" by Steve Rabey

Chuck

 

I Icelander(who have no authority here at FTE but, go with me here) hereby appoint you chuck as the "Paul Harvey" of FTE!

that flag has always had meaning to me and i see it alot. thanks to you, ill look at it alittle differently knowing that it came from a man like Newt.

i was waiting for your next post like this chuck and cant wait for the next one.


thanks again,

ice

 

Thanks Chuck. I didn't know the story behind that flag. Our County Government Center flys it every day.

I'm with icelander on the Paul Harvey appointment!...

Scott

 

Yes, I agree. Those war stories are educational and always seem to stir up some emotions. Thanks for your thoughtful contribution.