The Story Behind the Animated Crest Photo

In 1918, the 34th Infantry Division created a photo of their crest using 7,000 soldiers stationed in New Mexico just prior to their departure for Europe in World War I.

In 2006, Lt. Col. Larry Herke, Brigade XO, wanted to recreate the photograph of the Red Bull. This time the picture of the crest would be made of soldiers from the 1/34th Brigade Combat Team, before departing to Iraq, to depict the 34th Infantry Division “Red Bull” shoulder patch with a “1” inscribed in the bull head to denote 1st BCT of the 34th.

Lt. Col. Herke placed Maj. Michael Lins, Brigade Engineer, in charge of the photograph project. Maj. Lins drew out the patch with the inscribed “1” using AUTOCAD design software. He adjusted the size and shape to make the crest fit on the parade field by calculating how many soldiers could be fit on each part of the crest. Lins used the software to plan where to place all of the 4,000 soldiers in the BCT to fill out the design.

A week prior to the actual filming of the crest, Maj. Lins confirmed his AUTOCAD drawings by staking out the positions on the parade field, and filming the outline by helicopter. After the image was adjusted, it was ready to be filmed.

During the 14 March Departure Ceremony rehearsal, the 4,000 soldiers of the BCT positioned themselves and posed for the photograph. Sergeant 1st Class Clint Wood from the brigade public affairs office took 50 different pictures of the crest by helicopter to ensure he captured the best image.

The soldiers wore their recently issued army combat uniforms for the green in the photograph, and soldiers forming the “1” wore their black physical fitness uniform trousers, their physical fitness jackets turned inside out, and their black stocking caps.

Animated Crest Factoids:

• 24 8.5” x 11” engineering drawings
• Over all length 403 ft by over all width 203 ft
• Each horn is 90 ft long
• The number 1 in the skull is 110 ft tall and tapers 2.5 feet wider at the top to compensate for the perspective view.
• 31 arcs using 17 different radiuses used to layout the crest ranging from 3 ft for the eye sockets in the skull to 217 ft for the outer ring
• 90 benchmarks points surveyed in
• 25,257 square feet covered by troops
• 63,986 square feet total area covered by crest
• 66 test photos taken during two helicopter flights
• 150 pounds of lime used to paint lines
• Crest was aligned due north to align shadows for highest sun elevation at noon.
• Photos were taken from helicopter. Elevation varied from 120 to 220 ft. Crest layout was designed for photo taken at 200 ft.
• Crest center line was surveyed in and laid out below the crest out of the view of the photo. The helicopter shadow was aligned with this center line to keep the helicopter in the proper position for the photo.

For questions or comments e-mail us at paoredbull@yahoo.com.

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