Proud Men

In May 1943, on the eve of their embarkation for overseas duty. 1,500 members of the 45th Infantry Division, all American Indians, staged a war dance. Last week, when the 45th returned to the U.S. from its latest overseas tour, 1,000 men marched from Manhattan's Bowling Green to City Hall, where General Matthew Ridgway, Mayor Robert Wagner, and a host of brass were waiting to welcome them home. Along Broadway the traditional ticker tape slithered down on the marching men--the first to return from Korea as a unit--and a crowd of 250,000 New Yorkers cheered them on their way. After the ceremonies, the men of the Thunderbird Division dispersed, some to other units, others to civilian life, and the 45th, a National Guard outfit, was honorably retired from active duty and sent back to its home state, Oklahoma.

Sicily to Munich. Between the war dance and the Broadway parade, the Thunderbirds followed a long and bloody trail of soldiering around the world. In World War II the 45th was a crack assault division. In eight campaigns, from Sicily to Munich, it made four landings (Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, the French Riviera), spent 511 days in action, suffered 20,993 casualties (second only to the 3rd Division). The Nazi army learned to respect and fear the men of the fast-stepping "Falcon" Division,* who overran 1,000 square miles of Sicily in one three-week action. ("Don't you ever sleep?'' asked a German P.W.) The folks at home knew the men of the 45th as the models for Willie and Joe. Thunderbird Cartoonist Bill Mauldin's ragged, wistful G.I.s, and the prototypes of World War II foot soldiers everywhere.

After V-J day, the 45th returned to Oklahoma and inactive duty. At a convention in 1951, the 45th Division Association passed a resolution demanding that the division be enlarged to Marine Corps size, and that the commanding general be given equal status on the J.C.S. The Thunderbirds. said the association, participated in four major landings, and in more combat days than any Marine division, "in fact, as many as any three Marine divisions." The marines regarded this petition as in bad taste.

Baldy to Heartbreak Ridge. In 1950 the 45th was called to federal service once more, entered combat in Korea a year later. The division found itself in a new, essentially defensive role. In 429 combat days, the 45th spent most of its time in counterattacks and blackface night patrols, but it saw plenty of action, too--at Baldy, the Punchbowl, and at Heartbreak Ridge. In the battlefield judgment of James Van Fleet, the 45th, "as far as combat effectiveness is concerned, is perhaps as good as any division we have."

By the time of the Korean armistice, the 45th was a battle-weary old Thunderbird, top-heavy with honors (more than 10,000 decorations, including nine Medals of Honor), campaigns (twelve battle stars) and casualties (preliminary count: 36,231). In the spirit of the divisional motto, Semper Anticus (Always Forward), the 45th had never yielded an inch of territory to the enemy. A platoon sergeant on Old Baldy once explained the 45th's fighting record. It was all a matter of pride: "The ones from Oklahoma--the Guard guys--got pride because I guess they figure they represent Oklahoma over here . . . The others--the draftees and R.A. guys--figure they ain't gonna let somebody they figure a Saturday-night soldier out-soldier, them. And anybody that knows about a war knows that the kind of pride people are willing to pay off on can take an outfit a long, long way."

*The German interpretation of thunderbird. Originally, the 45th had as a shoulder patch an Indian (or neolithic) good-luck symbol the swastika. When Adolf Hitler appropriated that symbol, the 45th changed its unit device to the red & gold thunderbird a legendary Indian bird.

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