The International Association of Amateur Heralds

And some good U.S. Navy heraldry:

USS Tornado (PC-14): Or billetty Gules on a pile Sable a dragon urinant Or detailed Vert breathing flames to base proper.


USS O'Kane (DDG-77): Or on a fess wavy between three crosses alisee Azure each charged with a mullet Argent a trident head Or.


USS Halyburton (FFG-40): Barry of ten and per pale Gules and Or counterchanged a lion rampant Azure armed and langued Or seme of eleven stars Argent.

JMcMillan wrote:seme of eleven stars

Can something be semé of a certain number? I thought that semé referred to being strewn with an unfixed number.

Can something be semé of a certain number? I thought that semé referred to being strewn with an unfixed number.

If the field is seme I would certainly agree. In this case the blazon is describing stars on a charge. It would be impossible to blazon precisely how 11 stars were to be shown on the body of a rampant lion - per fess 4/4/3 for example. So seme (i.e. "strewn haphazardly) seems right.

I count 13 stars on Halyburton's lion:

• One on the head (1);
• Two on the shoulder (2,3);
• One on each foreleg (4,5);
• One on the torso(6);
• One on the hip(7);
• Two on each hindleg(8,9,10,11); and
• Two on the tail(12,13)

Pharmacist's Mate Second Class William D. Halyburton, Jr., was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for actions while serving with the 5th Marines during the Battle of Okinawa. The 13 stars on a blue lion are a reference to the 13 stars on the octagonal plate from which the medal itself depends, although the blue used is not the "proper" blue. The crest makes reference to his rating.

Some interesting history involving the Halyburton. In April 2009, she helped rescue the captain of the Maersk Alabama. Three months later, she became the first non-British ship to take part in the Constable's Dues ritual. (However, since neither casks nor alcohol are available on board United States Ships, they were borrowed from Tower authorites.)

Jeremy Kudlick wrote:I count 13 stars on Halyburton's lion:

Quite right, I should have counted more carefully. And thanks for the additional context.

USS Wasp (LHD-1):
Shield: Or, a pile Azure, overall a chevron debased counterchanged; in chief a pair of wings conjoined Argent surmounted by a ship’s hull affronté upon waves of the sea all of the first in front of two crossed swords; a cutlass with point to base of the third and a saber point to dexter of the first.

Crest: On a wreath Or and Azure a demi-torteau below two tridents saltirewise Or, overall a wasp Proper; all encircled by ten mullets four on either side and two at top Azure.


Blue and Gold are the colors most associated with navies, especially the US Navy. The counterchanged pile and chevron divide the shield into nine areas to honor the nine previous USS Wasps. The wings and ship's hull indicate her dual role as an amphibious assault ship (she has a flight deck for helicopter and STOVL operations and a well for boat operations), and the crossed swords honor the entire crew, officers and enlisted. On the crest, the stars pay homage to the two USS Wasps (CV-7 and CV-18) which served in the Pacific Theatre (indicated by the demi-toreau representing Japan) and earned two and eight battles stars, respectivley, during World War II. The wasp is am obvious canting reference to the ship's name.

More in depth explanation is available on the Army Institute of Heraldry website.

I think the wings and swords make the shield a bit busy, but overall an excellent piece of work.

I do like the shield of USS O'Kane.

However, why was the wasp only placed in the crest of USS Wasp instead of occupying a prominent place on the shield?

During the medieval period armigers quite readily used a pun on their name on the shield while punning devices occur frequently in the badges of the British and Canadian navy and air force.

I have noticed that any pun in arms granted by the College of Arms in London is usually restricted to the crest. It now seems that it is more important to make the shield a biography of the armiger.

Regards,

Iain Boyd

Iain Boyd wrote:I do like the shield of USS O'Kane.

However, why was the wasp only placed in the crest of USS Wasp instead of occupying a prominent place on the shield?

I agree that the arms would have been better if a wasp had been the main charge, as it was on the badge adopted by one of the predecessor Wasps, the aircraft carrier CV-18.

Iain Boyd wrote:However, why was the wasp only placed in the crest of USS Wasp instead of occupying a prominent place on the shield?

Given the choice of colors (Or and Azure), I think a wasp on the shield would have been lost unless it was a wasp Or placed only in the chief portion of the pile.

Arms of the USS Princeton (CV-/CVA-/CVS-37 and LPH-5). She was an Essex Aircraft Carrier, later reclassified as LPH = Landing Platform Helicopter. The Princeton served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. She was also the recovery vessel for the Apollo 10 Space Mission. Decommissioned in 1970 and sold to the scrappers the year after.