Newt Heisley

Last updated April 27, 2019

Newton Foust Heisley (November 9, 1920 – May 14, 2009) was an American commercial artist who was responsible for the design of the POW/MIA flag for the National League of Families, which was officially recognized by the United States Congress in relation to the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue "as the symbol of our Nation's concern and commitment to resolving as fully as possible the fates of Americans still prisoner, missing and unaccounted for in Southeast Asia, thus ending the uncertainty for their families and the Nation".^[1]

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the Federal Government of the United States. The legislature consists of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The Vietnam War POW/MIA issue concerns the fate of United States servicemen who were reported as missing in action (MIA) during the Vietnam War and associated theaters of operation in Southeast Asia. The term also refers to issues related to the treatment of affected family members by the governments involved in these conflicts. Following the Paris Peace Accords of 1973, 591 American prisoners of war (POWs) were returned during Operation Homecoming. The U.S. listed about 2,500 Americans as prisoners of war or missing in action but only 1,200 Americans were reported to have been killed in action with no body recovered. Many of these were Airmen who were shot down over North Vietnam or Laos. Investigations of these incidents have involved determining whether the men involved survived being shot down. If they did not survive, then the U.S. government considered efforts to recover its soldiers' remains. POW/MIA activists played a role in pushing the U.S. government to improve its efforts in resolving the fates of these missing soldiers. Progress in doing so was slow until the mid-1980s, when relations between the U.S. and Vietnam began to improve and more cooperative efforts were undertaken. Normalization of U.S. relations with Vietnam in the mid-1990s was a culmination of this process.

Biography

Heisley was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania on November 9, 1920. He lived with his grandparents for much of his youth, following the death of his mother when he was four-years old. He attended Syracuse University, graduating with a degree in fine arts, after which he worked as a graphic artist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . He enlisted during World War II, serving as a pilot in the United States Army Air Forces.^[1]

Williamsport is a city in, and the county seat of, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. In 2017, the population was estimated at 28,462. It is the principal city of the Williamsport, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of about 114,000.

Syracuse University is a private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. The institution's roots can be traced to the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded in 1831 by the Methodist Episcopal Church in Lima, New York. After several years of debate over relocating the college to Syracuse, the university was established in 1870, independent of the college. Since 1920, the university has identified itself as nonsectarian, although it maintains a relationship with The United Methodist Church.

In European academic traditions, fine art is art developed primarily for aesthetics or beauty, distinguishing it from applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork.

Graphic design and the POW/MIA flag

After the completion of his military service, Heisley spent more than two decades working at advertising firms in the New York City area. In 1971, a New Jersey-based agency he worked for assigned him to create a flag for their client Annin & Company, the largest flag manufacturer in the United States, which had been given the task to create the flag by Mary Hoff, the wife of a service member missing in action and a member of the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia.^[1]

The City of New York, usually called either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km²), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is located on a peninsula, bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, particularly along the extent of the length of New York City on its western edge; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware River and Pennsylvania; and on the southwest by the Delaware Bay and Delaware. New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state by area but the 11th-most populous, with 9 million residents as of 2017, and the most densely populated of the 50 U.S. states; its biggest city is Newark. New Jersey lies completely within the combined statistical areas of New York City and Philadelphia. New Jersey was the second-wealthiest U.S. state by median household income as of 2017.

The image he designed uses black-and-white images of the silhouette of a man in profile with his head bowed in the foreground with a guard tower and barbed wire behind him. Heisley used the image of his son Jeffrey, a 24-year-old member of the United States Marine Corps, who had just returned from basic training where he was preparing to be shipped to Vietnam, returning from his training appearing sickly after a bout of hepatitis.^[2] "You Are Not Forgotten", the words that appear on the bottom of the flag, came to Heisley as he recalled his military experience as a pilot flying lengthy missions on C-47 Skytrain transport planes over the South Pacific with the thought coming to his mind that he could end up "being taken prisoner and being... forgotten".^[1]^[2]

The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or U.S. Marines, is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations with the United States Navy as well as the Army and Air Force. The U.S. Marine Corps is one of the four armed service branches in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States.

Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver tissue. Some people have no symptoms whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes, poor appetite, vomiting, tiredness, abdominal pain, or diarrhea. Hepatitis may be temporary (acute) or long term (chronic) depending on whether it lasts for less than or more than six months. Acute hepatitis can sometimes resolve on its own, progress to chronic hepatitis, or rarely result in acute liver failure. Over time the chronic form may progress to scarring of the liver, liver failure, or liver cancer.

Oceania is a geographic region comprising Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Spanning the eastern and western hemispheres, Oceania covers an area of 8,525,989 square kilometres (3,291,903 sq mi) and has a population of 40 million. Situated in the southeast of the Asia-Pacific region, Oceania, when compared to continental regions, is the smallest in land area and the second smallest in population after Antarctica.

Heisley recalled in 1997 that the flag had only been "intended for a small group" and that "No one realized it was going to get national attention". He had designed the flag selflessly "for the men who were prisoners of war or missing in action. They're the real heroes." He was proud of his efforts in its creation but embarrassed by the notice that arose from his involvement.^[1]

In 1988, the POW/MIA flag flew over the White House for the first time and it was installed on permanent display in the rotunda of the United States Capitol in 1989. In 1990, the United States Congress designated the flag Heisley designed as "the symbol of our nation's concern" for soldiers still unaccounted for in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, specifying six days each year — Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, National POW/MIA Recognition Day and Veterans Day — when it is mandated to fly the flag at all military establishments and federal buildings.^[1]

The White House is the official residence and workplace of the President of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. and has been the residence of every U.S. President since John Adams in 1800. The term "White House" is often used as a metonym for the president and his advisers.

The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol Building, is the home of the United States Congress and the seat of the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government. It is located on Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Though no longer at the geographic center of the Federal District, the Capitol forms the origin point for the District's street-numbering system and the District's four quadrants.

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering and honoring persons who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. The holiday, which is currently observed every year on the last Monday of May, was most recently held on May 28, 2018. Memorial Day was previously observed on May 30 from 1868 to 1970.

He decided to move with his family away from the big city and decided to relocate to Colorado Springs, Colorado, after stopping there one night and seeing the view the next morning. There he opened an advertising firm with his son Jim in 1972. Among the projects his agency worked on was the design of a pin for the 1980 Winter Olympics held in Lake Placid, New York.^[1]

Personal

After years of deteriorating health, Heisley died at age 88 on May 14, 2009 in his home in Colorado Springs, a week before he had planned to marry his fiancée, Donna Allison. He was survived by two sons and a granddaughter. Heisley's first wife, Bunny, whom he had met while in college, died in 2005.^[1]

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The National League of Families POW/MIA flag, also known as the POW/MIA flag or simply the POW flag, consists of a silhouette of a prisoner of war (POW) before a guard tower and barbed wire in white on a black field. "POW/MIA" appears above the silhouette and the words "You Are Not Forgotten" appear below in white on the black field.

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POW bracelet memorial bracelet commemorating a prisoner of war

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References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Nelson, Valerie J. (May 20, 2009). "Newt Heisley dies at 88; veteran designed POW/MIA flag". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved May 24, 2009.
1 2 "Newt Heisley, 1920-2009: WW II veteran designed POW/MIA flag". Chicago Tribune . Associated Press. May 19, 2009. Archived from the original on May 28, 2009. Retrieved May 24, 2009.

External links

Newt Heisley at Find a Grave
Marc Leepson, "Symbol of a Nation's Concern: The POW/MIA Flag and Newton Heisley", The VVA Veteran, July/August 2009

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[LATimesObit-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Nelson, Valerie J. (May 20, 2009). "Newt Heisley dies at 88; veteran designed POW/MIA flag". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved May 24, 2009.

[APObit-2] 1 2 "Newt Heisley, 1920-2009: WW II veteran designed POW/MIA flag". Chicago Tribune . Associated Press. May 19, 2009. Archived from the original on May 28, 2009. Retrieved May 24, 2009.