Heraldry Found in High Point, North Carolina, Part 2

The next bit of heraldry I ran into was actually several bits of heraldry. On Main Street, directly across from the train station, is the High Point Veterans Memorial, in memory of those who served in the U.S. armed forces from World War I through the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 On the face of the memorial are the insignia of the five branches of the military service: Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard. As you can see from the close ups below, only the Army, Air Force and Coast Guard insignia use a “real” coat of arms on them.

The Army and Coast Guard use the arms of the United States, Paly of thirteen argent and gules, a chief azure, while U.S. Air Force has its own coat of arms consisting of a bleu celeste field charged with a gold thunderbolt and a white base nebuly (the thunderbolt flying above the clouds, as it were; a color version of the USAF arms is below).

What a great display of heraldry!