The Man with the Golden Gun (film)

The Man with the Golden Gun is a 1974 spy film and the ninth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and the second to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. A loose adaptation of Ian Fleming's posthumously published 1965 novel of the same name, the film has Bond sent after the Solex Agitator, a breakthrough technological solution to contemporary energy shortages, while facing the assassin Francisco Scaramanga, the "Man with the Golden Gun". The action culminates in a duel between them that settles the fate of the Solex.

The Man with the Golden Gun was the fourth and final film in the series directed by Guy Hamilton. The script was written by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz. The film was set in the face of the 1973 energy crisis, a dominant theme in the script; Britain had still not yet fully overcome the crisis when the film was released in December 1974. The film also reflects the then-popular martial arts film craze, with several kung fu scenes and a predominantly Asian location, being set and shot in Thailand, Hong Kong, and Macau. Part of the film is also set in Beirut, Lebanon, but it was not shot there.

The film was met with mixed reviews, and some critics described it as the lowest point in the canon up to that time. Christopher Lee's portrayal of Scaramanga as a villain of similar skill and ability to Bond was praised, but reviewers criticised the film as a whole, particularly its comedic approach and the performances of Moore and Britt Ekland. Whilst profitable, the film is the fourth lowest-grossing in the series, and its relatively modest returns by comparison with those of Live and Let Die (1973) reportedly placed the continuation of the franchise in jeopardy. It was the last Bond film to be co-produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, with Saltzman selling his 50% stake in Danjaq, LLC, the parent company of Eon Productions, after the release of the film.

## Plot

An American gangster, Rodney, visits famed crack shot hitman Francisco Scaramanga to kill him and collect a bounty, but he is directed into a funhouse section of the estate, where Scaramanga eventually retrieves his golden gun and kills him.

In London, a golden bullet etched with '007' is received by MI6; it is believed to have been sent by Scaramanga, but because no one knows of his appearance outside of having a third nipple, M relieves Bond of his current mission involving the location of a solar energy scientist named Gibson.

At a hint from Moneypenny, Bond sets out unofficially to locate Scaramanga, first by retrieving a spent golden bullet from a belly dancer in Beirut. He traces the bullet to a gun maker in Macau, and forces him to reveal how he ships the bullets. Bond follows the shipment carried to Hong Kong by Andrea Anders, Scaramanga's mistress. In her Peninsula Hotel room, he coerces her to expose information about Scaramanga, his appearance and his plans. She directs Bond to the Bottoms Up Club where Scaramanga snipes Gibson when he steps outside, and Scaramanga's midget assistant Nick Nack steals a small device called the Solex Agitator off his body. Bond, who had pulled out his pistol outside the club, is arrested by Hong Kong police lieutenant Hip. But instead of going to the station, he is transported to the wreck of in the harbour where he meets M and Q, and is assigned to work with Hip to retrieve the Solex.

Bond travels to Bangkok to meet Hai Fat, a wealthy Thai entrepreneur suspected of arranging Gibson's murder. Posing as Scaramanga by showing off his fake third nipple, Bond is invited to dinner, but his plan backfires because unbeknownst to him, Scaramanga himself is operating at Fat's estate. Bond is captured and taken to Fat's martial arts academy, where the students duel to the death and then are instructed to kill him. Bond battles high grade scholar Chula. Escaping with the aid of Hip and his nieces, Bond speeds away on a motorised sampan along the river, and reunites with his assistant, Mary Goodnight. Scaramanga subsequently kills Fat with his golden gun and assumes control of his empire and the Solex.

Anders reveals to Bond that she sent the bullet to London. She wants him to kill Scaramanga, and promises to give him the Solex as they spent the night together. At a Muay Thai boxing event the next day, Bond finds Anders sitting and staring silently, dead from a bullet to the heart. Scaramanga arrives and introduces himself to Bond, but Bond is able to smuggle the Solex to Hip, who passes it to Goodnight. When Goodnight follows Nick Nack to place a homing device on Scaramanga's car, Scaramanga traps her in the car's boot. Bond discovers Scaramanga driving off and steals an AMC Hornet from a showroom to give chase, coincidentally with the holidaying J.W. Pepper (the Louisianan sheriff Bond encountered in Live and Let Die) sitting inside. The chase concludes when Scaramanga's AMC Matador hides in a building and then transforms into a plane that flies off.

Tracking Goodnight's homing beacon, Bond takes a RC-3 Seabee seaplane and flies to Scaramanga's island in the Red Chinese waters. Scaramanga welcomes and shows Bond the solar power plant facility that he has obtained from Hai Fat, the technology for which he intends to sell to the highest bidder. While demonstrating the equipment, Scaramanga uses the solar-powered energy beam to destroy Bond's seaplane, preventing him from escaping.

During lunch, Scaramanga proposes a pistol duel with Bond on the beach. With Nick Nack officiating, the two men take twenty paces, but when Bond turns and fires, Scaramanga has vanished. Nick Nack leads Bond into Scaramanga's manor and funhouse section. Bond eventually outwits and kills Scaramanga by posing as his mannequin. Goodnight kills Scaramanga's security chief Kra, but the latter's fall into a liquid helium vat causes the plant's temperature to spiral out of control. Bond retrieves the Solex unit just before the plant is destroyed, and they escape unharmed in Scaramanga's Chinese junk. After Bond fends off a final attack by Nick Nack, he romances Goodnight.

## Cast

- Roger Moore as James Bond – 007, an MI6 agent who receives a golden bullet, supposedly from Scaramanga, indicating that he is a target of Scaramanga.

- Christopher Lee as Francisco Scaramanga, an assassin who is identified by his use of a golden gun; he also has a 'superfluous papilla', or supernumerary nipple. Scaramanga plans to misuse solar energy for destructive purposes. Lee was Ian Fleming's step-cousin and regular golf partner. Scaramanga has been called "the best-characterised Bond villain yet."
- Britt Ekland as Mary Goodnight, Bond's assistant. Described by the critic of the Sunday Mirror as being "an astoundingly stupid blonde British agent". Ekland had previously been married to Peter Sellers, who appeared in the 1967 Bond film Casino Royale.
- Maud Adams as Andrea Anders, Scaramanga's mistress. Adams described the role as "a woman without a lot of choices: she's under the influence of this very rich, strong man, and is fearing for her life most of the time; and when she actually rebels against him and defects is a major step." The Man with the Golden Gun was the first of two Bond films in which Maud Adams appeared; she played a different character, Octopussy, in the 1983 film of the same name: rumours that she also had a cameo as an extra in Roger Moore's last Bond film, A View to a Kill, are untrue.

- Hervé Villechaize as Nick Nack, Scaramanga's little person manservant and accomplice. Villechaize was later known to television audiences as Tattoo in the series Fantasy Island.
- Clifton James as Sheriff J.W. Pepper, a Louisiana sheriff who happens to be on holiday in Thailand. Hamilton liked Pepper in the previous film, Live and Let Die, and asked Mankewicz to write him into The Man with the Golden Gun as well.

- Richard Loo as Hai Fat, a Thai millionaire industrialist who was employing Scaramanga to assassinate the inventor of the "Solex agitator" (a revolutionary solar energy device) and steal the device. He himself is later killed by Scaramanga.
- Soon-Taik Oh as Lieutenant Hip, Bond's local contact in Hong Kong and Bangkok. Soon-Taik Oh trained in martial arts for the role, and his voice was partially dubbed over.
- Marc Lawrence as Rodney, an American gangster who attempts to outshoot Scaramanga in his funhouse, and loses, being shot in the head by Scaramanga. Lawrence also appeared in Diamonds Are Forever.
- Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny, M's secretary.
- Marne Maitland as Lazar, a Portuguese gunsmith based in Macau who manufactures golden bullets for Scaramanga.
- Desmond Llewelyn as Q, the head of MI6's technical department.
- James Cossins as Colthorpe, an MI6 armaments expert who identifies the maker of Scaramanga's golden bullets. The first draft of the script originally called the role Boothroyd until it was realised that was also Q's name and it was subsequently changed.
- Chan Yiu Lam as Chula, the black-belt student at Hai Fat's dojo

- Bernard Lee as "M", the head of MI6.

- Francoise Therry as Chew Mee, Hai Fat's mistress, whom Bond memorably finds swimming nude in a swimming pool. (Uncredited)
- Sonny Caldinez as Kra, Scaramanga's security chief. (Uncredited)

## Production

Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman intended to follow You Only Live Twice with The Man with the Golden Gun, inviting Roger Moore to the Bond role. However, filming was planned in Cambodia, and the Samlaut Uprising combined with Moore's commitments in The Saint, made filming impractical, leading to the production being canceled. On Her Majesty's Secret Service was produced instead with George Lazenby as Bond. Lazenby's next Bond film, Saltzman told a reporter, would be either The Man with the Golden Gun or Diamonds Are Forever. The producers chose the latter title, with Sean Connery returning as Bond after Lazenby's resignation.

United Artists greenlit another James Bond film after viewing dailies of Moore's performance in Live and Let Die. Broccoli and Saltzman then decided to start production on The Man with the Golden Gun after Live and Let Die. This was the final Bond film to be co-produced by Saltzman as his partnership with Broccoli was dissolved after the film's release. Saltzman sold his 50% stake in Eon Productions's parent company, Danjaq, LLC, to United Artists to alleviate his financial problems. The resulting legalities over the Bond property delayed production of the next Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me, for three years.

The novel is mostly set in Jamaica, a location which had been already used in the earlier films, Dr. No and Live and Let Die; The Man with the Golden Gun saw a change in location to put Bond in either the Far East or the Middle East for the second time. After considering Beirut, where part of the film is set; Israel; Iran, where the location scouting was done but eventually discarded because of the Yom Kippur War; and the Hạ Long Bay in North Vietnam; the production team chose Thailand as a primary location, following a suggestion of production designer Peter Murton after he saw pictures of the Phuket bay in a magazine. Saltzman was happy with the choice of the Far East for the setting as he had always wanted to go on location in Thailand and Hong Kong. During the reconnaissance of locations in Hong Kong, Broccoli saw the wreckage of the former and came up with the idea of using it as the base for MI6's Far East operations.

### Writing and themes

Tom Mankiewicz wrote the first draft for the script in 1973, delivering a script that was a battle of wills between Bond and Scaramanga, who he saw as Bond's alter ego, "a super-villain of the stature of Bond himself". Tensions between Mankiewicz and Guy Hamilton and Mankiewicz's growing sense that he was "feeling really tapped out on Bond" led to the re-introduction of Richard Maibaum as the Bond screenwriter.

Maibaum, who had worked on six Bond films previously, delivered his own draft based on Mankiewicz's work. Much of the plot involving Scaramanga being Bond's equal was sidelined in later drafts. For one of the two main aspects of the plot, the screenwriters used the 1973 energy crisis as a backdrop to the film, allowing the MacGuffin of the "Solex agitator" to be introduced; Broccoli's stepson Michael G. Wilson researched solar power to create the Solex.

While Live and Let Die had borrowed heavily from the blaxploitation genre, The Man with the Golden Gun borrowed from the martial arts genre that was popular in the 1970s through films such as Fist of Fury (1972) and Enter the Dragon (1973). However, the use of the martial arts for a fight scene in the film "lapses into incredibility" when Lt Hip and his two nieces defeat an entire dojo.

### Casting

Originally, the role of Scaramanga was offered to Jack Palance, but he turned the opportunity down. Christopher Lee, who was eventually chosen to portray Scaramanga, was Ian Fleming's step-cousin and Fleming had suggested Lee for the role of Dr. Julius No in the 1962 series opener Dr. No. Lee noted that Fleming was a forgetful man and by the time he mentioned this to Broccoli and Saltzman they had cast Joseph Wiseman in the part. Due to filming on location in Bangkok, his role in the film affected Lee's work the following year, as director Ken Russell was unable to sign Lee to play The Specialist in the 1975 film Tommy, a part eventually given to Jack Nicholson.

Two Swedish models were cast as the Bond girls, Britt Ekland and Maud Adams. Ekland had been interested in playing a Bond girl since she had seen Dr. No, and contacted the producers about the main role of Mary Goodnight. Hamilton met Adams in New York, and cast her because "she was elegant and beautiful that it seemed to me she was the perfect Bond girl". When Ekland read the news that Adams had been cast for The Man with the Golden Gun, she became upset, thinking Adams had been selected to play Goodnight. Broccoli then called Ekland to invite her for the main role, as after seeing her in a film, Broccoli thought Ekland's "generous looks" made her a good contrast to Adams. Hamilton decided to put Marc Lawrence, whom he had worked with on Diamonds Are Forever, to play a gangster shot dead by Scaramanga at the start of the film because he found it an interesting idea to "put sort of a Chicago gangster in the middle of Thailand".

### Filming

Filming commenced on 6 November 1973 at the partly submerged wreck of the RMS Queen Elizabeth, which acted as a top-secret MI6 base grounded in Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong. The crew was small, and a stunt double was used for James Bond. Other Hong Kong locations included the Hong Kong Dragon Garden as the estate of Hai Fat, which portrayed a location in Bangkok. The major part of principal photography started on 18 April 1974 in Thailand. Thai locations included Bangkok, Thonburi, Phuket and nearby Phang Nga Province, on the islands of Ko Khao Phing Kan (Thai: เกาะเขาพิงกัน) and Ko Tapu (Thai: เกาะตะปู). Scaramanga's hideout is on Ko Khao Phing Kan, and Ko Tapu is often now referred to as "James Bond Island" both by locals and in tourist guidebooks. The scene during the boxing match used an actual Muay Thai fixture at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium. The car chase in Bangkok was filmed near the khlong on Krung Kasem Road.

Production returned in late-April to Hong Kong, followed by filming in Macau for its famous casinos, which Hong Kong lacks. Some scenes in Thailand had to be finished, and production had to move to studio work in Pinewood Studios; this included sets such as Scaramanga's solar energy plant and island interior. Academy Award-winning cinematographer Oswald Morris was hired as a replacement for Ted Moore, who fell ill during the shoot. Morris was initially reluctant, as he did not like his previous experiences with taking over other cinematographers' work, but accepted after dining with Broccoli. Production wrapped in Pinewood in August 1974.

Bond's duel with Scaramanga, which Mankewicz said was inspired by the climactic faceoff in Shane, was shortened as the producers felt it was causing pacing problems. The trailers featured some of the cut scenes.

Hamilton adapted an idea of his involving Bond in Disneyland for Scaramanga's funhouse. The funhouse was designed to be a place where Scaramanga could get the upper hand by distracting the adversary with obstacles, and was described by Murton as a "melting pot of ideas" which made it "both a funhouse and a horror house". While an actual wax figure of Roger Moore was used, Moore's stunt double Les Crawford was the cowboy figure, and Ray Marione played the Al Capone figure. The canted sets such as the funhouse and the Queen Elizabeth had inspiration from German Expressionist films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. For Scaramanga's solar power plant, Hamilton used both the Pinewood set and a miniature projected by Derek Meddings, often cutting between each other to show there was no discernible difference. The destruction of the facility was a combination of practical effects on the set and destroying the miniature. Meddings based the island blowing up on footage of the Battle of Monte Cassino.

#### Golden Gun prop

Three Golden Gun props were made; a solid piece, one that could be fired with a cap and one that could be assembled and disassembled, although Christopher Lee said that the process "was extremely difficult". The gun was "one of the more memorable props in the Bond series" and consisted of an interlocking fountain pen (the barrel), cigarette lighter (the bullet chamber), cigarette case (the handle) and cufflink (the trigger) with the bullet secured in Scaramanga's belt buckle. In the film, the gun was designed to accept a single 4.2-millimetre, 23-carat gold bullet produced by Lazar, a gunsmith in Macau who specialized in custom weapons and ammunition. The Golden Gun ranked sixth in a 2008 20th Century Fox poll of the most popular film weapons, which surveyed approximately 2,000 film fans.

On 10 October 2008, it was discovered that one of the golden guns used in the film, which is estimated to be worth around £80,000, was missing (suspected stolen) from Elstree Props, a company based at Hertfordshire studios.

#### Car stunts

The film became famous for two vehicle stunts, one which made the Guinness Book of Records.

As part of a significant product placement strategy, a number of vehicles from American Motors Corporation were featured in the movie. The flying car was the newly introduced AMC Matador Brougham Coupe in the Oleg Cassini edition, used by Francisco Scaramanga, along with Nick Nack, to kidnap Mary Goodnight. With the wings, the stunt car was 9.15 m (30 ft) long, 12.80 m (42 ft) wide, and 3.08 m (10 ft) high. A stuntman drove the "car plane" to a runway. It was not airworthy, so a 1 m (39 in)-long remote controlled model, built by John Stears, was used for the aerial sequences. The scene was shot at Bovington Camp.

A 1974 AMC Hornet X was used for the "corkscrew" stunt which was first tested as a computer-simulation (the first of its kind) by Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory. It was then performed as a live-action stunt, successfully filmed in one take.

The stunt was performed by Loren "Bumps" Willert (as James Bond) driving an AMC Hornet leaping a broken bridge and spinning around 360 degrees in mid-air about the longitudinal axis, doing an "aerial twist"; Willert successfully completed the jump on the first take, and was given a \$30,000 bonus on the spot. The stunt was shown in slow motion, for the scene was otherwise too fast. Composer John Barry added a slide whistle sound effect over the stunt, which Broccoli kept in despite thinking that it "undercouped the stunt". Barry later regretted his decision, thinking the whistle "broke the golden rule" as the stunt was "for what it was all worth, a truly dangerous moment, ... true James Bond style". The sound effect was described as "simply crass". The writer Jim Smith suggested that the stunt "brings into focus the lack of excitement in the rest of the film and is spoilt by the use of 'comedy' sound effects". Eon Productions had licensed the stunt, which had been designed by Raymond McHenry. It was initially conceived at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory (CAL) in Buffalo, New York as a test for their vehicle simulation software. After development in simulation, ramps were built and the stunt was tested at CAL's proving ground. It toured as part of the All American Thrill Show as the Astro Spiral before it was picked up for the film. The television programme Top Gear attempted to repeat the stunt in June 2008, but failed.

The corkscrew stunt made the Guinness Book of Records as the first "astro spiral" jump on film.

### Music

The theme tune to The Man with the Golden Gun, released in 1974, was performed by Scottish singer Lulu and composed by John Barry. Tony Bramwell, who worked for Harry Saltzman's music publishing company Hilary Music, wanted Elton John or Cat Stevens to sing the title song. However, by this time the producers were taking turns producing the films; Albert Broccoli—whose turn it was to produce—rejected Bramwell's suggestions. The lyrics to the Lulu song were written by Don Black and have been described variously as "ludicrous", "inane" and "one long stream of smut", because of their sexual innuendo. Bramwell subsequently dismissed the Barry-Lulu tune as "mundane".

Alice Cooper wrote a song titled "Man with the Golden Gun" to be used by the producers of the film, but they opted for Lulu's song instead. Cooper released his song in his album Muscle of Love.

Barry had only three weeks to score The Man with the Golden Gun and the theme tune and score are generally considered by critics to be among the weakest of Barry's contributions to the series, an opinion shared by Barry himself: "It's the one I hate most ... it just never happened for me." The Man with the Golden Gun was also the first to drop the distinctive plucked guitar from the theme heard over the gun barrel opening. A sample from one of the songs, "Hip's Trip", was used by The Prodigy in the "Mindfields" track on the album The Fat of the Land.

## Release and reception

The Man with the Golden Gun was premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on 19 December 1974, with general release in the United Kingdom the same day. The film was made with an estimated budget of \$7 million; despite initial good returns from the box office, The Man with the Golden Gun grossed a total of \$97.6 million at the worldwide box office, with \$21 million earned in the US, making it the fourth lowest-grossing Bond film in the series.

The promotion of the film had "one of the more anaemic advertising campaigns of the series" and there were few products available, apart from the soundtrack and paperback book, although Lone Star Toys produced a "James Bond 007 pistol" in gold; this differed from the weapon used by Scaramanga in the film as it was little more than a Walther P38 with a silencer fitted.

### Contemporary reviews

The Man with the Golden Gun met with mixed reviews upon its release. Derek Malcolm in The Guardian savaged the film, saying that "the script is the limpest of the lot and ... Roger Moore as 007 is the last man on earth to make it sound better than it is." There was some praise from Malcolm, although it was muted, saying that "Christopher Lee ... makes a goodish villain and Britt Ekland a passable Mary Goodnight ... Up to scratch in production values ... the film is otherwise merely a potboiler. Maybe enough's enough." Tom Milne, writing in The Observer, was even more caustic, writing that "This series, which has been scraping the bottom of the barrel for some time, is now through the bottom ... with depressing borrowings from Hong Kong kung fu movies, not to mention even more depressing echoes of the 'Carry On' smut." He summed up the film by saying it was "sadly lacking in wit or imagination".

David Robinson, the film critic at The Times, dismissed the film and Moore's performance, saying that Moore was "substituting non-acting for Connery's throwaway", while Britt Ekland was "his beautiful, idiot side-kick ... the least appealing of the Bond heroines". Robinson was equally damning of the changes in the production crew, observing that Ken Adam, an "attraction of the early Bond films," had been "replaced by decorators of competence but little of his flair." The writers "get progressively more naive in their creation of a suburban dream of epicureanism and adventure". Writing for The New York Times, Nora Sayre considered the film to suffer from "poverty of invention and excitement", criticising the writing and Moore's performance and finding Villechaize and Lee as the only positive points for their "sinister vitality that cuts through the narrative dough."

The Sunday Mirror critic observed that The Man with the Golden Gun "isn't the best Bond ever" but found it "remarkable that Messrs. Saltzman and Broccoli can still produce such slick and inventive entertainment". Arthur Thirkwell, writing in the Sunday Mirror's sister paper, the Daily Mirror, concentrated more on lead actor Roger Moore than the film itself: "What Sean Connery used to achieve with a touch of sardonic sadism, Roger Moore conveys with roguish schoolboy charm and the odd, dry quip." Thirkwell also said that Moore "manages to make even this reduced-voltage Bond a character with plenty of sparkle". Judith Crist of New York magazine gave a positive review, saying "the scenery's grand, the lines nice and the gadgetry entertaining", also describing the production as a film that "capture[s] the free-wheeling, whooshing non-sense of early Fleming's fairy tale for grown-ups orientation".

Jay Cocks, writing in Time, focused on the gadgets such as Scaramanga's flying car, as what was wrong with both The Man with the Golden Gun and the more recent films in the Bond series, calling them "Overtricky, uninspired, these exercises show the strain of stretching fantasy well past wit." Cocks also criticised the actors, saying that Moore "lacks all Connery's strengths and has several deep deficiencies", while Lee was "an unusually unimpressive villain".

### Retrospective reviews

Opinion on The Man with the Golden Gun has for the most part remained the same as it was in 1974. On Rotten Tomatoes, 39% out of 51 critical reviews about the film were positive, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The website's critical consensus states, "A middling Bond film, The Man With the Golden Gun suffers from double entendre-laden dialogue, a noteworthy lack of gadgets, and a villain that overshadows 007." Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 43 out of 100 based on 11 reviews from critics, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".

Some critics saw the film as uninspired, tired and boring. Roger Moore was also criticised for playing Bond against type, in a style more reminiscent of Sean Connery, although Lee's performance received acclaim. Danny Peary wrote that The Man with the Golden Gun "lacks invention ... is one of the least interesting Bond films" and "a very laboured movie, with Bond a stiff bore, Adams and Britt Ekland uninspired leading ladies". Peary believes that the shootout between Bond and Scaramanga in the funhouse "is the one good scene in the movie, and even it has an unsatisfying finish" and also bemoaned the presence of Clifton James, "unfortunately reprising his unfunny redneck sheriff from Live and Let Die."

Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly argues that Scaramanga is the best villain of the Roger Moore James Bond films, while listing Mary Goodnight among the worst Bond girls, saying that "Ekland may have had one of the series' best bikinis, but her dopey, doltish portrayal was a turnoff as much to filmgoers as to fans of Ian Fleming's novels". The Times put Scaramanga as the fifth best Bond villain in their list, and Ekland was the third in their list of the top 10 most fashionable Bond girls. Maxim listed Goodnight at fourth in their Top Bond Babes list, saying that "Agent Goodnight is the clumsiest spy alive. But who cares as long as she's using her perfect bikini bottom to muck things up?"

## See also

- Outline of James Bond
- My Dinner with Hervé, HBO movie which recreates several scenes from The Man with the Golden Gun

1974 James Bond film by Guy Hamilton

Films with screenplays by Richard Maibaum

Films with screenplays by Tom Mankiewicz


The Land of Green Plums

The Land of Green Plums (German: Herztier, lit. 'heart animal') is a novel by Herta Müller, published in 1994 by Rowohlt Verlag. The novel portrays four young people living in a totalitarian police state in Communist Romania, ending with their emigration to Germany. The narrator is an unidentified young woman belonging to the ethnic German minority. Müller said the novel was written "in memory of my Romanian friends who were killed under the Ceauşescu regime".

Like many of Müller's books, The Land of Green Plums illustrates the position of dissidents from the German minority in Romania, who suffered a double oppression under the regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu. The rural German-speaking community tries to preserve its culture by enforcing traditional rules; once the main characters escape this environment through university study in the city, they suffer, as political dissidents, the oppression exercised by the totalitarian regime. Those who flee the country for Germany become cultural outcasts: they are not considered German there but rather Eastern Europeans. Critics read the novel as testifying to abuse and the ensuing trauma. Normal human relationships are rendered impossible by the lack of freedom of expression; the threat of violence, imprisonment, and execution; and the possibility that any personal friend may be a traitor. Written in a paratactic style, full of flashbacks and time shifts, the language of the book reflects trauma and political oppression.

After its publication in German and its translation into Dutch, the novel received moderate attention. It gained an international audience when the English translation by Michael Hofmann was published in 1996. In 1998 this translation won the International Dublin Literary Award, the largest prize given for a single work of fiction published in English. Following the announcement that Müller was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature, The Land of Green Plums entered the bestseller list on Amazon.

## Plot

The first character introduced to the reader is a girl named Lola, who shares a college dormitory room with five other girls, including the narrator. Lola records her experiences in a diary, relating her efforts to escape from the totalitarian world of school and society. She rides the buses at night and has brutish, anonymous sex with men returning home from factory work. She also has an affair with the gym teacher, and soon joins the Communist Party. This first part of the book ends when Lola is found dead, hanging in the closet; she has left her diary in the narrator's suitcase.

Having supposedly committed suicide and thus betrayed her country and her party, Lola is publicly denounced in a school ceremony. Soon after, the narrator shares Lola's diary with three male friends, Edgar, Georg, and Kurt; Lola's life becomes an escape for them as they attend college and engage in mildly subversive activities—"harbouring unsuitable German books, humming scraps of banned songs, writing to one another in crude code, taking photographs of the blacked-out buses which carry prisoners between the prison and the construction sites." The four are from German-speaking communities; all receive mail from their mothers complaining about their various illnesses and how their children's subversiveness is causing them trouble; all have fathers who had been members of the Nazi SS in Romania during World War II. They hide the diary and other documents, including photographs and books, in the well of a deserted summerhouse in town. Very quickly it becomes clear that an officer of the Securitate, Captain Pjele, is interested in the four; he begins to subject them to regular interrogations. Their possessions are searched, their mail opened, and they are threatened by the captain and his dog.

After graduation the four go their separate ways, but they remain in contact through letters and regular visits, although their letters are read by the Securitate. They take menial jobs: Kurt works in a slaughterhouse as a supervisor, for instance; and the narrator translates German manuals in a factory. A fifth member, Tereza, befriends the narrator even as it becomes clear that she is acting partly on Pjele's orders.

The lives of all five become more miserable, and each conforms to the regime's demands even as they lose their jobs for apparently political reasons. They discuss fleeing the country, and Georg is the first to do so. Weeks after he arrives in Germany, he is found dead from a fall from the window of a Frankfurt hotel. The narrator and Edgar likewise acquire passports and go to Germany, but continue to receive death threats after emigrating. Kurt remains in Romania, no longer working; he is later found hanged. The novel ends with the same passage as it began: "When we don't speak, said Edgar, we become unbearable, and when we do, we make fools of ourselves".

## Characters

The narrator, Edgar, Georg, and Kurt hail from similar backgrounds. All are German Romanian and students at the same university. They all suffer persecution, and oppose the regime. The characters—especially Edgar, Georg, and Kurt—are quite deliberately not developed in great detail, as noted by critics. "Characterization is not the point here. Müller is primarily a poet", and this poetic interest likewise is said to explain the lack of chapter organization and of transitional phrases. Only two of the six main characters who suffer oppression survive at the end of the book: Lola dies by hanging, Georg commits suicide after fleeing to Germany, Kurt is found hanged, and Tereza, the narrator's friend who betrays her to the Securitate, dies of cancer.

## Genre

### Autobiography

The novel is partly autobiographical. Like her narrator, Müller comes from the German-speaking minority in Romania, the Banat Swabians, with a father who had been former SS man during World War II. Trained as a teacher, she lost her position after refusing to cooperate with the Securitate. She emigrated to Germany in 1987. In a 1998 interview she mentioned that real persons can be recognized in some of her characters, including one in The Land of Green Plums: "That [recognition of characters] was already the case in my previous book [The Land of the Green Plums]. Because my best girlfriend died young, and because she had betrayed me, and because I had to despise her and could not stop loving her."

In an earlier interview with the Danish newspaper Politiken, Mülller went into greater detail about her friend, portrayed as Tereza in this novel:

> I had a good friend in Romania, who came and visited me in Germany, when I had finally escaped from the country. She was in the service of the Securitate, as it turned out. She had left her passport lying out, and I saw it by chance one morning, when she was out. No ordinary person had such a passport with visas to Greece, to Italy, and Spain. She confessed everything, and shortly after I naturally had to throw her out. This happened in the same period that I was receiving death threats like many others who had fled from Romania, and I kept far away from Romanians I did not know or could not count on. But she was my friend.

### Allegory

The novel approaches allegory in many of its details, such as the green plums of the title. Mothers warn their children not to eat green, unripe plums, claiming that they are poisonous. Yet the novel regularly depicts police officers gorging themselves on the fruit: "The officers' lack of constraint in engulfing the fruit parallels the remorseless persecution of the human race" under Nicolae Ceauşescu. The green plums also suggest childhood, or regression into childhood: "The narrator watches the Romanian police guards in the streets of the city as they greedily pocket green plums ... 'They reverted to childhood, stealing plums from village trees.' Ms. Muller's vision of a police state manned by plum thieves reads like a kind of fairy tale on the mingled evils of gluttony, stupidity and brutality."

## Language and style

Critics have recognized Müller's writing as political, "as a form of manifest resistance against totalitarian claims to power," and have studied her "complex and ambiguous imagery." According to Larry Wolff, reviewing the book for The New York Times, the poetic quality of the language is essentially connected to its author's objective: "the author seeks to create a sort of poetry out of the spiritual and material ugliness of life in Communist Romania." Critics have generally shown appreciation for the novel's language, as did Nicholas Lezard, writing in The Guardian:

> The prose, while simple at the level of the sentence (and we can safely assume that Hofmann's translation is very faithful to the original), is shifty, blurred, to the point where at times we are left unsure as to what exactly is going on – a deliberate flight from causation, quite understandable in a country where everyone (even, we learn, the horses) has been driven mad by fear.

Though the novel's language, and Müller's language in general, is praised for its precision--Peter Englund, secretary of the Swedish Academy, noted her "extreme precision with words"—many things are left unsaid. As a reviewer for The Australian noted, the narrator is never named, the words "totalitarian" and "liberty" never appear in the book, and even Ceausescu, usually referred to as the "dictator," is named only twice, first when one of the characters (a Jewish WWII survivor) notes how the greeting "ciao" is also the first syllable of the dictator's name, and again when a comparison is made between Ceausescu, Hitler, and Stalin.

## Themes

### Trauma

Psychological trauma caused by fear permeates the novel: "Fear, isolation, and abandonment characterize the lives of the first-person narrator and her three friends....Müller describes how fear acquires a life of its own; it becomes independent of the subject's will." One critic argues that "Herztier was written in response to the trauma of life under the Ceauşescu dictatorship, when the citizens of Romania lived in constant fear of the secret police or Securitate." As Müller said in an interview, this fear in the novel is autobiographical as well.

According to Beverley Driver Eddy, The Land of Green Plums presents trauma as well as its testimony; the narrator gives her own testimony, and relates it to the testimony of her friends' suffering. The first of these is Lola, the friend who supposedly kills herself; her testimony is preserved in her diary, in which she wrote of her animalistic sexual exploits with nameless men and her struggle to cope with the guilt of having joined the Communist Party in an effort to better herself. For the narrator, preserving Lola's notebook (and sharing it with her three friends) becomes of paramount importance, especially since the memory of Lola was erased days after her death by the Party establishment. Additional complexity comes from Lola's testimony being interwoven in the narrator's own—"a testimony within a testimony." In an interview published in 1998, Müller said that "she is concerned with showing that the childhood experiences have been internalised by the narrator, and that the traumas of the frightened, non-conformist child are replicated to the larger traumas of the adult dissident." In the image of the weeds cut down by the narrator's father, an image presented early in the novel, the parallel between the father and the dictator is evidenced: "both 'make cemeteries' without fear of retribution." One symptom of the trauma this causes in its victims is disconnection, the strain of friendship resulting from lack of trust, disrupting normal human relationships for the remainder of the victim's life. Müller's novel portrays this disconnection and the ongoing trauma for survivors, even after the fall of the dictatorship.

Other critics have focused on different effects of trauma in the novel and in Müller's work in general. Lyn Marven argues that the Müller's poetics and style, characterized by paratactic as well as syntactic and narrative gaps, illustrates one of the effects of trauma:

> "Trauma disrupts the structures of memory....Trauma cannot be integrated into narrative memory and exists only as a gap or blank spot; it therefore cannot be articulated, and returns in the form of surprisingly literal flashbacks, hallucinations, or dreams."

Marven notes another effect: a "distorted body image" that often gives rise to a "radical metonymy," a fragmentation, surfacing most notably in a scene where Pjele, during an interrogation, lists the narrator's clothes and possessions, to which the narrator responds by listing her own body parts: "1 pr. eyes, 1 pr. ears, 1 nose, 1 pr. lips, 1 neck." Marven notes that Müller's collages, which the critic says are "central to Müller's œuvre," show the same fragmentation, and says that her "increasingly readable" prose, coupled with recent collages moving toward narrative, might suggest that there is "a possibility of overcoming trauma."(Grazziella Predoui also noted that Müller's prose is developing from parataxis toward more complicated syntax.)

### Banat-Swabians

The situation of the Banat-Swabians, the German-speaking minority in Romania, is a recurring theme in Müller's writing. Historically, Germans were recruited by the Austria-Hungary to repopulate southern areas following the expulsion of the Turks of the Ottoman Empire. They were given special privileges, allowed to keep their language and Roman Catholicism, even in areas in which the Orthodox Church was paramount. Their communities spoke German into the 20th century. They were among ethnic Germans, or Volksdeutsche, whom Adolf Hitler proposed to unite in a greater Germany. Millions of ethnic Germans were expelled from eastern Europe after the war; thousands were forced into labor camps. Even years later, they were often discriminated against in Romania under the communist government.

By the late 20th century, their status is one of the central themes of The Land of Green Plums; this idea is explored in detail in Valentina Glajar's 1997 article "Banat-Swabian, Romanian, and German: Conflicting Identities in Herta Müller's Herztier." The Banat-Swabian community, of which the narrator is a member, was described by Müller as extremely ethnocentric. Following persecution after the war, while remaining survivors had no desire to emigrate to Germany, they exerted an almost totalitarian control, especially on their children to keep them within their community. Müller had already addressed this topic in her first work, Niederungen, translated as Nadirs in English, in which the German community holds on to its language and habits in an attempt to deny the Romanian dictatorship that rules them. One critic characterized this communal attempt in Niederungen as a "mechanistically followed tradition".

According to Glajar, this is the world of the narrator's mother, who writes of her sicknesses in her letters in the hope of keeping her daughter emotionally connected to her home village. The narrator's father was a member of the SS (as were Müller's father and uncle), and is a troubling example of Germanness. The novel proposes a tension inside Romania between the culturally totalitarian atmosphere of the Banat-Swabian community and the politically totalitarian world of Timișoara, where the main characters attend college—between German and Romanian. But the main characters who move to Germany quickly discover that although they were German in Romania, they are Romanian in Germany. They face new social, cultural and linguistic difficulties. Georg commits suicide a few weeks after his arrival in Frankfurt.

## Critical reception

### Academic interest

The book attracted academic interest, and scholars discussed it in at least three distinct categories: language and style, often in relation to the politics of totalitarianism; trauma studies, given the psychological pressure on the novel's characters, who grow up under a totalitarian regime; and ethnographic and literary studies of the German minority in Romania. On the latter topic, Valentina Glajar, now at Texas State University, published an article in 1997. Müller's Herztier is one of the four titles discussed in Glajar's 2004 monograph The German Legacy, on German-language literature from Eastern Europe.

### Attention in the press

In the German press, the novel's publication generated modest but positive attention. Rolf Michaelis reviewed the novel at length in Die Zeit in October 1994, analyzing the function of fear and praising the book as a "poetic epic", comparing transitions and structure to those found in Homer. "Herta Müller", he wrote, "does not simply use the German language; she makes it her own, in an incomparable way. She invents her own language." A favorable review of the Dutch translation appeared in the national daily newspaper Trouw in 1996.

The English translation was likewise favorably reviewed: a review in The San Diego Union-Tribune said "this heartbreaking tale is bitter and dark, yet beautiful". Larry Wolff, in his review for The New York Times, described the book as "a novel of graphically observed detail in which the author seeks to create a sort of poetry out of the spiritual and material ugliness of life in Communist Romania".

Radio Free Europe reported that the novel is a favorite of Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, the Iranian pro-democracy activist, who read it (in the Persian translation by Gholamhossein Mirza-Saleh) shortly after being released from prison in 2009.

## Awards

### International Dublin Literary Award

- The novel and its English translation won the 1998 International Dublin Literary Award; Müller received £75,000, and translator Michael Hofmann £25,000. In its comments, the jury remarked on the main themes of the novel—politics, language, and allegory, saying:

> The novel brilliantly evokes a world of cruelty and oppression. Set in Communist Romania under the Ceaucescu dictatorship, The Land of Green Plums portrays the lives of a group of dissident students and teachers whose integrity is continuously assailed and sometimes betrayed. Herta Müller's stark and vivid prose explores a terror-stricken society of mendacity and political slander. The "green plums" of the title stand in part for truth and its brutal suppression in a world of interrogators and informers, where speaking out can become a matter of life and death.
>
> The author's style, achieves a spartan eloquence, and the novel's individual characters are powerfully drawn.
>
> This elegantly understated book is at once bleak and beautiful, humorous and heartbreaking.

The International Dublin Literary Award drew attention to the novel, and by the end of the year, it had been published in paperback in the US by Hydra Books/Northwestern University Press.

### 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature

In 2009, Herta Müller won the Nobel Prize in Literature. During the presentation ceremony, Anders Olsson, member of the Swedish Academy, referred to The Land of Green Plums as "a masterful account of the flight of a group of youths from the terror regime". Immediately following the announcement, sales of this and Müller's other novels (five had been translated into English by then) skyrocketed: "On Thursday morning, when the award was announced, The Land of Green Plums, by all accounts Müller's best book, was No. 56,359 on Amazon.com; by the close of business that day, it was No. 7".

## Publication history

The Land of Green Plums is the second novel published by Müller since leaving Romania, after Der Fuchs war damals schon der Jäger (1992). It appeared in German in 1994, followed by the English translation in 1996. The hardback was published in the United States by Metropolitan Books in November 1996. A Dutch translation was published in 1996. Although French-language Swiss media had shown interest in the author, the novel had not been translated into French by 1998 After the IMPAC award, paperback editions of Hoffman's translation were published in the United Kingdom by Granta later that year and again in September 1999 (with new cover art.) It was published in the United States by Northwestern University Press in November 1998. In November 2010, after Müller had won the Nobel Prize for Literature, a paperback was released in the United Kingdom and the United States by Picador.

Novel by Herta Muller


Banton, Romblon

Banton, officially the Municipality of Banton (Bantoanon: Banwa it Banton, Filipino: Bayan ng Banton, formerly known as Jones), is a fifth-class municipality in the province of Romblon, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 5,737 people.

Its territory encompasses the entire Banton Island and a few uninhabited smaller islands. The island is located on the northern portion of the province and lies on the northern portion of the Sibuyan Sea near the southern tip of Marinduque. It is a town of about 5,000 people majority of which speak the Bantoanon language (also known as Asi), one of the five primary branches of the Bisayan languages.

Banton is thought to be already inhabited by Filipinos since the pre-colonial period, based on analysis of human remains, coffins, an ancient burial cloth and other archaeological finds discovered at the Guyangan Cave System by the National Museum in 1936. The present settlement was founded in 1622 by the Spanish and is the oldest settlement in the province. During the American colonial period, the municipality changed its name to Jones in honor of American congressman William Jones, who authored the Philippine Autonomy Act of 1916. Today, Banton is one of Romblon's thriving municipalities, with an economy dependent on copra farming, fishing, raffia palm weaving, and tourism. The island is collectively known as a cultural landscape due to its historical, cultural and archaeological value to humanity.

## Etymology

The name "Banton" was derived from the Asi word batoon, meaning "rocky", referring to the mountainous and rocky topography of the island due to its volcanic origin. Another possible origin is the word bantoy, which is the Asi word for the venomous stonefish.

## History

### Early history

Banton was already inhabited during pre-colonial times as proven by ancient artefacts such as wooden coffins and skeletal remains found in the island's Guyangan Cave System in 1936 by a team of researchers from the National Museum of the Philippines. Among the artefacts was the Banton Cloth, a piece of a traditional burial cloth found in one of the wooden coffins. It is estimated to be 400 years old, making it the earliest known warp ikat (tie-resist dyeing) textile in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. These artifacts are now preserved at the National Museum of Anthropology in Manila.

The municipality of Banton was established by Spanish colonial authorities in 1622, the first town established in Romblon, which was then part of Capiz province. It was initially founded in a site in Bacoco Hill (now part of Barangay Hambian), south-west of its present site. The administration of the other islands of Romblon were put under the jurisdiction of Banton until 1631, when Pueblo de Romblon was founded. In 1640, due to frequent raids by Moros, who looted and pillaged the settlement, the limestone fort called Fuerza de San Jose and the San Nicolas de Tolentino Parish Church was constructed under the leadership of Father Agustin de San Pedro, also known as El Padre Capitan, who was the parish priest of Banton at that time. The construction was completed in 1644, and in 1648, San Nicolas de Tolentino was installed as the town's patron saint. The fort effectively protected the town against further Moro raids. Banton ceased being part of Capiz when the Spanish colonial government created the politico-military province of Romblon on 11 January 1868.

### 20th century

When civilian government was introduced in Romblon by the Americans on 16 March 1901, Banton was one of the 11 new municipalities reinstated or created. In 1918, the municipality was renamed Jones in honor of American congressman William Jones, who authored the Philippine Autonomy Act of 1916 that provided for greater autonomy for the Philippines under American colonial rule. On 8 June 1940, with the passage of Commonwealth Act No. 581, all of Romblon's municipalities were dissolved and Jones, together with Corcuera and Concepcion, were consolidated into a special municipality called Maghali, one of four special municipalities that the law created (the rest being Romblon, Tablas and Sibuyan). The reorganization proved to be difficult for the province's local leaders, and after World War II, Republic Act No. 38 repealed Commonwealth Act No. 581, restoring Jones to its pre-war status. On 24 April 1959, Republic Act No. 2158 restored the island to its former name, Banton.

### 21st century

In 2013, Banton was one of the sites of a detailed resource assessment by the Department of Energy (DOE), along with Maricaban Island in Batangas and Balut Island in Saranggani. The study aimed to determine whether the island can be a site for low enthalpy geothermal power generation. However, no exploitable geothermal resource has been delineated on the island. On 19 March 2013, the National Museum of the Philippines declared the island's Guyangan Cave System, where precolonial wooden coffins, remains, and the Banton Cloth were found, as an Important Cultural Property.

The island municipality was greatly devastated by Typhoon Melor on 15 December 2015, which made its fourth landfall over the island, and by Typhoon Kammuri on 3 December 2019, which made its second landfall over the island. The typhoon destroyed or damaged 912 houses in the island municipality, while 42 percent of agricultural lands were damaged. The estimated cost of damage to infrastructure in the town was ₱39 million.

In 2020, the population of the Philippine long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis philippensis) in the island was found to have increased over previously documented levels, with the monkeys destroying crops and raiding homes. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources sent a team to the island, which confirmed the population increase. To control its population, the team suggested that the macaques be exported to monkey farms in Luzon for use in scientific research on diseases such as Ebola. Nedim Buyukmihci, a professor emeritus of veterinary medicine at the University of California-Davis has expressed opposition to the plan.

On 21 October 2020, several fishing boats in the villages of Mainit and Yabawon on the western side of the island municipality were destroyed by huge waves caused by Typhoon Saudel, which passed over the central portion of Luzon Island in the north of the Philippines. A few days later, on 25 October, the island municipality was devastated by Typhoon Molave, which made landfall over Torrijos, Marinduque, just north of the island. PAGASA raised typhoon Signal No. 3 over the island, along with the rest of northern Romblon, as the typhoon passed over the province with winds of up to 130 kph. The typhoon caused a landslide along the Togbongan-Nabalay Road on the north of the island and also destroyed several homes and agricultural lands.

In 2021 and 2022, the island municipality marked two important milestones: On 15 March 2021, Banton marked a year of being COVID-19 free since the community quarantine in the Philippines began. It joined 23 other municipalities in the distinguished status. In August 2022, the town celebrated its 400th founding anniversary with a host of religious and festive social activities, including a ceremonial release of balloons.

On 16 July 2023, MV Maria Helena, a ROPAX ferry owned and operated by Montenegro Shipping Lines intentionally beached in Barangay Nasunogan after it titled in the Sibuyan Sea while en route to San Agustin from Lucena. The incident was caused by a tire blowout in one of the vehicles being carried by the ferry amid rough seas, causing the vehicle the tilt and its lashing to snap, and resulting in vehicle pileup on the port side of the vessel. All 120 passengers and crew were rescued. The vessel has since been righted, its cargo transferred to another vessel, and has sailed back to Lucena for repairs.

## Geography

Banton lies on the northern portion of the Sibuyan Sea and is equidistant between Marinduque Island to the north and Tablas Island to the south. It is composed of the main island of Banton and the uninhabited islands of Bantoncillo, Carlota and Isabel, the last two of which are collectively known as the Dos Hermanas Islands. There is also Polloc Islet near Tabonan Beach just off the northwest portion of the island and part of Barangay Yabawon.

Banton has a total land area of 3,248 hectares (32.48 km2). Based on rock petrology, the island is a dormant volcano which lies at the southernmost portion of the Pleistocene-Quaternary West Luzon volcanic arc and may have been active during the Pliocene period. Because of its volcanic origin, the island has a mountainous, rocky topography, with very few patches of flat land suitable for farming. The island's highest elevation, Mount Ampongo, rises at 596 metres (1,955 ft).

### Barangays

Banton is politically subdivided into 17 barangays. Each barangay consists of puroks and some have sitios.

In 1954, the sitios of Mahaba, Angomon, Solocan, Kapanranan, and Yabawon were consolidated into the barangay known as Yabawon.

- Balogo
- Banice
- Hambi-an
- Lagang
- Libtong
- Mainit
- Nabalay
- Nasunogan
- Poblacion
- Sibay
- Tan-Ag
- Toctoc
- Togbongan
- Togong
- Tungonan
- Tumalum
- Yabawon

### Climate

As part of Romblon, Banton is classified under Type III of the Corona climatic classification system. This type of climate is described as having no prominent wet or dry seasons. The wet season, which usually occurs from June to November can extend up to December during the onset of the southwest monsoon. The dry season from January to May may sometimes have periods of rainfall or even inclement weather.

## Demographics

According to the 2020 census, Banton has a population of 5,737 people. The island municipality is sparsely populated with a population density of . According to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), in 2013, there were 3,694 registered voters in Banton, spread over 31 electoral precincts. Of this figure, 1,794 are male registered voters, while 1,900 are female.

### Language

The island's inhabitants speak the Asi language (also known as Bantoanon), one of three major languages spoken in Romblon and one of five primary branches of the Bisayan language family. The island's inhabitants were the first speakers of the language throughout the province, having spoken it since precolonial times. From Banton, the language spread to other island like Maestro de Campo, Simara, and in the towns of Calatrava, and Odiongan in Tablas Island.

David Paul Zorc, a linguist from the Australian National University whose expertise is on Philippine languages, notes that Asi speakers may have been the first Bisayan speakers in the Romblon region. He also suggests that Asi may have a Cebuano substratum and that many of its words may have been influenced by the later influx of other languages such as Romblomanon.

## Economy

Banton has a primarily agricultural economy, with copra farming and fishing as the main sources of livelihood. There is also an indigenous raffia palm handicraft industry. Other crops grown in the island are root crops (such as cassava, sweet potatoes), fruits and vegetables. The locals also engage in livestock raising for local consumption, and small-scale shipbuilding of wooden boats and launches.

Due to the island's rocky topography and lack of a stable supply of freshwater, rice production is difficult in the island. Rice from Mindoro, Marinduque or Quezon is supplied to the island by local traders. In recent years, the island has also become a small tourist hub for Asi expatriates and foreign tourists from the United States and other countries.

## Tourism

Banton is an eco-tourism and heritage destination due to its beaches, diving sites, caves, churches and Spanish-era fortifications.

### Heritage sites

Being the oldest settlement in Romblon, Banton has several Spanish-era fortifications and churches, as well as American-era houses. These include Fuerza de San Jose, Banton Church, the old campanile made of limestone at Everlast in Barangay Poblacion, and a limestone watchtower at Onte in Barangay Toctoc. There is an American-era house at Pinagkaisahan in Barangay Poblacion which used to be the Ugat Faigao Museum but now serves as a sari-sari store. The Asi Studies Center for Culture and the Arts (also in Purok Everlast) serves as an information center for the Asi language and Banton history, as well as depository of Banton's archaeological and cultural artifacts. The Church of San Nicolas de Tolentino also has a small museum of pre-colonial and Spanish-era artifacts. Among these artifacts is an intricate jar known locally as balogodibo, which three children accidentally found at Barangay Balogo in 2010.

The National Museum of the Philippines also announced in 2016 the construction of a site museum near the island's Guyangan Cave System on a 1.5-hectare (3.7-acre) property donated by the Fabicon family. The site museum will serve as depository of the island's cultural treasures and will conduct research on how to best preserve the island's intangible heritage.

### Natural formations

Caves are Banton's well-known natural formations. The Guyangan Cave System, situated at the boundary of Barangay Toctoc and Togbongan, has seven caves, some of which were inhabited during pre-colonial times, and is now an Important Cultural Treasure as declared by the National Museum. Guyangan Hill, where the caves are situated, also has a natural view deck called Manamyaw overlooking Barangay Poblacion and the Sibuyan Sea. On a clear day, the islands of Sibuyan, Romblon, and Tablas, as well as Burias Island, can be easily seen from Manamyaw. The island has several rock formations as well. Punta Matagar in Barangay Poblacion is a pointed rock formation in the shape of a spear or arrow head. In Barangay Banice, on the southern portion of the island, lies a rock arch said to be the anchorage of "Lolo Amang", a mythological figure in Romblon's nautical folklore similar to the Flying Dutchman.

### Beaches

Several beaches dot Banton's coast including Macat-ang, Tabonan, Mahaba, Recodo, Togbongan, Mainit, and Tambak beaches. Some like Macat-ang, Tabonan, and Tambak are white sand beaches, while others, like Togbongan, are pebbled and rocky. The island's waters are also well-known dive sites, with corals that serve as breeding ground for groupers, snappers, sharks, and stingrays.

### Festivals

Banton has annual religious and cultural festivals. The Sanrokan festival showcases the local tradition of sharing food, especially viand, among neighbors and starts from Holy Saturday up to Easter Sunday. The festival has two phases: the Sanrokan sa Barangay (sharing of food in the villages) and the Sanrokan sa Poblacion (sharing of food at the town proper). Parlor games such as chasing the pig and palosebo (climbing a greased bamboo pole to claim a prize) are held during the celebration. This is followed by the Hanrumanan (meaning "souvenir/legacy") street dancing and parade. Meanwhile, every year, on 10 September, the entire island pays tribute and homage to the town's patron saint, San Nicolas de Tolentino through the Biniray festival. Holy mass is held during feast day, followed by the parading of the saint's image around town. This leads to a fluvial parade around the island, with each village giving homage to the saint. Bantoanons also hold an annual Via Crucis during the Holy Week and Flores de Mayo in May.

## Government

### Local government

As a municipality in the Province of Romblon, government officials in the provincial level are voted by the electorates of the town. The provincial government have political jurisdiction over local transactions of the municipal government.

Pursuant to the Local Government Code of 1991, the municipality of Banton is composed of a mayor (alkalde), a vice mayor (bise alkalde) and eight members (kagawad) of the Sangguniang Bayan or town council, alongside a secretary to the said council, all of which are elected to a three-year term and are eligible to run for three consecutive terms. As of 30 June 2022, Banton's incumbent mayor is Milagros "Mely" Faderanga of the Nacionalista Party while the incumbent Vice Mayor is Loijorge Fegalan, also of the Nacionalista Party.

The barangays or villages, meanwhile, are headed by elected officials, the topmost being the Punong Barangay or the Barangay Chairperson (addressed as Kapitan; also known as the Barangay Captain). The Kapitan is aided by the Sangguniang Barangay (Barangay Council) whose members, called Barangay Kagawad (Councilors), are also elected. The barangays have SK federation which represents the barangay, headed by SK chairperson and whose members are called SK councilors. All officials are also elected every three years.

In 2011 and 2013, Banton was a recipient of the Seal of Good Housekeeping from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). As recipient of the award, the local government was rewarded with one million pesos from the Performance Challenge Fund of the DILG for use in local projects. The Seal of Good Housekeeping is a mechanism which tracks the performance of local government units, "specifically in the areas of local legislation, development planning, resource generation, and resource allocation".

### Municipal seal

The municipal seal of Banton is composed of two concentric circles: a thin yellow outer circle and a small white circle. The yellow outer circle has the words Bayan ng Banton (Municipality of Banton) written on top in a semi-circular fashion and the words Lalawigan ng Romblon (Province of Romblon) on the bottom in a semi-circular fashion. At the center of the small white circle is a shield with five grey sides, a motif taken from the Provincial Seal of Romblon. The shield has a light blue field representing the Sibuyan Sea where the island municipality is located.

At the center of the light blue field is an outline map of the island in green. Two figures can also be seen on the seal: A coconut tree on the center of the outline of the island, representing copra, the island's major crop and economic activity, which als' symbolizes the Bantoanons' desire to live a decent life and gain greater knowledge for a brighter tomorrow. On light blue field to left of the outline of the island is an image of a wooden ship, locally known lanson, as the Bantoanons are skilled shipbuilders. It also symbolizes their desire to seek adventure and greener pastures.

## Infrastructure

### Utilities

Electricity in the island is supplied by a 0.326 MW diesel power plant of the Romblon Electric Cooperative (ROMELCO). Electricity service used to be available only in early morning, from 4:00 to 6:00 a.m. and at night, from 5:00 to 11:00 p.m., due to limited fuel supplies. On 16 March 2018, ROMELCO began supplying the island with 24-hour electricity.

Water is being supplied through a level-one water system installed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) through its Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi CIDDS) initiative in 2015. The water is sourced from underground freshwater springs in Barangay Mainit and distributed to individual homes through a network of pipes and pumps. Aside from this system, locals also get potable water from artesian wells built in several locations in the island and rainwater collection systems that many residents have in their homes.

The island has access to cellular phone and Internet service through Smart and Globe. Terrestrial and cable television service are also available.

### Transportation

As seas surrounding Banton can be rough during the wet season, the best time to visit the island is from March to May during the dry (summer) season. This is also the typical time for Asi families living in Metro Manila or abroad to visit the island since it coincides with the Lenten season and barangay fiestas. Within the island, the main forms of transportation are passenger motorcycles (known elsewhere as habal-habal) and motorized boats. A circumferential road connects the 17 barangays of Banton to each other.

By sea: Banton is accessible via RORO vessels, wooden launches and motorized boats that regularly travel from Lucena City, Quezon. A RORO ferry by Starhorse Shipping leaves for Banton at 4 p.m. every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday and returns to Lucena City from Banton at 5 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Tourists and visitors can also take RORO vessels that ply the Manila-Odiongan, Batangas City-Odiongan, or the Roxas-Odiongan route. From Odiongan, Banton can be reached by jeepney and motorized boat via Calatrava, Romblon. Another alternative route is through Pinamalayan, Oriental Mindoro using motorized boats.

By air: The closest airport with active airline service is Tugdan Airport in Alcantara, Romblon. Cebu Pacific has flights to the airport, with four flights weekly from Manila. From Alcantara, Banton can be reached in five to six hours by jeepney and motorized outrigger boats from Calatrava.

## Health

Banton has a rural health unit located beside the town hall and town square in Barangay Poblacion that can provide basic healthcare services to its residents. Aside from this, there are barangays that have a health center that provide healthcare monitoring, first aid, and other basic healthcare services. For more severe medical emergencies and other medical tests, patients need to be transported to Romblon, Odiongan, or Lucena to receive healthcare services.

## Education

Banton has a high literacy rate owing to the establishment of several public elementary and secondary schools. All schools in the island are administered by the Department of Education (DepEd). The main public elementary school, Banton Central School, and the main secondary school, Banton National High School, are both located in the main village of Poblacion. There are public elementary schools as well in the villages of Balogo, Banice, Libtong, Nasunogan, Tan-ag, Tungonan, and Tumalum (shared with the village of Lagang). Another secondary school, Tungonan National High School, is located in Tungonan.

## Notable personalities

- Gabriel Fabella, co-founder and first president of the Philippine Historical Association; Father of June 12 Independence Day; and sole representative of Romblon in the First National Assembly (1935–1938).

## Gallery

Municipality in Romblon, Philippines

Island municipalities in the Philippines


47th Infantry Regiment (United States)

The 47th Infantry Regiment is an infantry regiment of the United States Army. Constituted in 1917 at Camp Syracuse, New York, the regiment fought in the Great War, and was later inactivated in 1921. Reactivated in 1940, the regiment fought during World War II in North Africa, Sicily, and Western Europe, then was inactivated in 1946. During the Cold War, the regiment saw multiple activations and inactivations, with service both in the Regular Army and the Army Reserve; it fought in Vietnam. Ultimately it was reactivated as a training regiment, and as of 1999, it has been assigned to Fort Moore and consists of two active battalions.

## History

### The Great War

The regiment was formed from a cadre from the 9th Infantry Regiment; the regiment was organized at Camp Syracuse on 1 June 1917, almost two months after the American entry into World War I. Initially assigned to Major General George H. Cameron's 4th Division, it fought in Europe during the Great War; within the division the regiment was part of Brigadier General Benjamin Andrew Poore's 7th Infantry Brigade. By May 1918, the regiment arrived at Brest, France, training until July. In late July, the regiment along with the rest of the 7th Infantry Brigade, was briefly attached to the VII French Army Corps near Bois du Chitelet; it was then sent to bolster the beleaguered 42nd Division at Ourcq. In early August, the regiment fought near Bazoches-sur-Vesles during the Second Battle of the Marne. In September and October 1918, the regiment fought near Cuisy, Septsarges, and Brieulles-sur-Meuse; during this period of time Colonel Troy H. Middleton took command of the regiment, having previously commanded the regiment's 1st Battalion.

It ended the war near Fays, Vosges, and served in the Army of Occupation near Koblenz until July 1919. Following the Great War, the army contracted in size; due to this downsizing, the regiment was inactivated in 1921. Although inactivated, the regiment was relieved of its assignment to the 7th Infantry Brigade in 1927, and reassigned to the 13th Infantry Brigade, which was part of the 7th Division.

### World War II

In August 1940, the regiment was reassigned away from the 7th Infantry Division and into the 9th Infantry Division, and was then activated at Fort Bragg. Initially, it was commanded by Colonel Alexander Patch; after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Patch was reassigned to the Pacific Theater of Operations. In November 1942, the regiment took part in Operation Blackstone in North Africa, where it fought against Vichy French forces during an amphibious landing; the regiment's Company K were the first American troops to land in French Morocco. At the time of the regiment was commanded by Colonel Edwin Randle. Following its actions during Operation Torch, of which Blackstone was a part, the regiment took part in divisional duties of monitor Spanish Morocco, which lasted into early 1943; during this time, the regiment conducted a foot march of more than 200 miles (320 km) from Safi to Port-Lyautey.

Still in North Africa, along with the rest of the 9th Division, the regiment fought in the Battle of El Guettar, which resulted in a significant number of casualties; for actions during the battle, the regiment's commander, received the Distinguished Service Cross (he would later go on to be promoted to be the assistant division commander of the 77th Division). Following El Guettar, the regiment moved north, and fought in the Battle of Sedjenane, and soldiers of the regiment's 2d Battalion, were the first Allied soldiers in Bizerte. After Colonel Patch was promoted and parted ways with the regiment, Colonel George W. Smythe became the regiment's commander. Along with the rest of the 9th Infantry Division, the regiment was sent to Sicily, in 1943; in Sicily the regiment was tangentially involved during the Battle of Troina, which saw the 9th Infantry Division's other infantry regiments in significant combat.

Remaining in Sicily after the Axis forces retreated, the regiment received orders to move in November 1943, making its way to England; with the rest of the 9th Infantry Division, the regiment trained until June 1944. The division was garrisoned around Winchester and during this time a number of personnel married local women. While stationed around Alresford, the regiment adopted a dog as a mascot, but it died when struck by a vehicle in May 1944.

On 10 June, four days after D-Day, the 9th Infantry Division landed at Utah Beach. Assigned to VII Corps, it was allocated to the liberation of the Cotentin Peninsula and was the division that sealed off the peninsula to prevent additional German reinforcements from breaking through. Medical supplies for the regiment had been lost during its movement from England to Normandy, but were replaced and captured German vehicles were pressed into service by the regiment's medical detachment. By 14 June, the entire regiment had landed, and the following day the 47th began combat operations, fighting alongside regiments of the 82nd Airborne Division, attacking along a path which was near, or included, Orglandes, Hautteville-Bocage, and Ste. Colombe. The regiment reached Saint-Lô-d'Ourville, via Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, Saint-Sauveur-de-Pierrepont, and Neuville-en-Beaumont, by 18 June.

Relieved by the 357th Infantry Regiment (of the 90th Infantry Division) along the English Channel, facing Jersey, the regiment moved to Saint-Jacques-de-Néhou where it began its push northward to Vasteville, via Bricquebec; on 20 June it began its push towards Cherbourg, but was initially halted near Sideville by stiff German prepared defenses around the outskirts of the port city. On 22 June, the attack on Cherbourg began, with the regiment errantly being attacked by aircraft of the IX Bomber Command, and the 39th Infantry Regiment following behind its advancement; by the 24th the regiment had broken through the enemy defenses, and along with the 39th, where fighting within the suburb of Octeville. The regiment continued to fight in the western portion of Cherbourg, and by the 26th it captured German General Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben and Admiral Walter Hennecke. The city fell to the Allies by the next day; following the liberation of the port city, along with the 60th Infantry Regiment, the 47th fought the remaining German forces in Cap de la Hague, ultimately capturing over 6,000 Germans by 1 July.

By 10 July, the 9th Infantry Division was tasked to join the effort to liberate Saint-Lô; the next day it was attacked by the Panzer Lehr Division. On 11 July, wounded men and medical officers of the regiment's third battalion, were captured by German forces; one of the medical officers would later be killed by friendly fire and buried at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial, while the other was liberated at Château-Thierry while taking care of wounded prisoners of war. In early August the regiment, along with the 60th Infantry Regiment, was fighting in the area of Gathemo. The liberation of Château-Thierry occurred on 27 August, while the 9th Infantry Division was following the wake of the movement of the 3d Armored Division.

On 14 September, the regiment entered Germany, at or near, Roetgen; it was the first German city to fall to the Allies. The regiment penetrated the Siegfried Line near Schevenhütte on 16 September. This was followed by fighting in the Hürtgen Forest; during the battle the regiment captured Frenzerburg Castle. By 30 September, the regiment had lost 163 officers; one company alone lost 18 officers killed, leading to a loss of experienced leadership over time. During the Battle of the Bulge, the regiment served as a cornerstone of American resistance around Eupen. The regiment had the distinction of another first; on 8 March 1945, soldiers of the regiment became the first infantry troops to cross the Rhine River, doing so at Remagen; for its actions during the crossing of the Rhine, the regiment was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation. During March the regiment experienced multiple changes in command, at the beginning of the month Colonel Smythe departed the regiment, leaving Lieutenant Colonel Herman A. Schmidt to act as the regiment's commanding officer, only to be succeeded by Colonel Peter O. Ward a week later.

By early April, the 9th Infantry Division was assigned to III Corps, and was part of the effort against the Ruhr Pocket; once again the Panzer Lehr Division attacked the 9th Infantry Division. For its actions in repelling the attack the regiment earned another Distinguished Unit Citation. By mid-April 1945, the 9th Infantry Division was reassigned to VII Corps, and fought against remaining German forces in the Harz Mountains; there they encountered concentration camps near Nordhausen. After the Germans surrendered, the regiment conducted occupation duty in Germany, which lasted until late 1946.

Part of the Regiment's postwar occupation duty included a stint at the Dachau Concentration Camp. Elements of the 47th were assigned guard and administrative duty from July, 1945. By this time Dachau had been converted to its postwar use as an internment camp that would intern former SS, Nazi functionaries, and officers of the German army.

In December 1946, the regiment was deactivated in Germany.

### Cold War

In July 1947 the regiment was reactivated at Fort Dix. In 1957, the regiment was reorganized into the Combat Arms Regimental System. In 1957, the regiment's 2d Battalion was relieved from the 9th Infantry Division, returning to assignment with the 4th Infantry Division. Also 1957, the regiment's 3d Battalion was inactivated and relieved from the 9th Infantry Division, and two years later allotted to the United States Army Reserves' 81st Infantry Division.

In 1961, the regiment's 2nd Battle Group (the redesignated 2d Battalion) was deployed to Germany. Stationed in Berlin, the regiment remained there for a year; the following year the regiment's 2d Battalion was inactivated at Fort Lewis, and the 3d Battalion was inactivated at Atlanta. In July 1963, the 1st Battalion was reactivated as a part of the 171st Infantry Brigade. In 1966, at Fort Riley, both the 2d and 3d Battalions were reactivated, with the 3d Battalion being reassigned to 9th Infantry Division.

#### Vietnam

In Vietnam, the regiment fought in the Mekong Delta, where it conducted riverine warfare. Along with other units assigned to the 9th Infantry Division, the regiment was based out of Đồng Tâm Base Camp; however, the regiment's 3d Battalion was based in Kiến Hòa province. In addition to riverine operations, the regiment also conducted air mobile operations.

During the conflict three of the regiment's battalions served; the 2d Battalion was deployed from January 1967 until October 1970, the 3d Battalion was deployed from January 1967 until July 1969, and the 4th Battalion was deployed January 1967 until July 1969. For the most part the regiment's battalions were assigned to the 9th Infantry Division's 2d Brigade, except for the 2d Battalion, which was temporarily assigned at various times in 1968 to the division's other two brigades. During its time in Vietnam, the regiment conducted joint operations with the United States Navy, during which its soldiers deployed from, and billeted aboard, naval vessels.

In 1966, upon learning of the regiment's upcoming riverine mission, the regiment's leadership worked with the Navy's Amphibious Training School, in Coronado, to gain the skills needed for the expected deployment. In January 1967, the regiment deployed from Fort Riley, by way of San Francisco, disembarking at Vũng Tàu. From mid-February to late-March 1967, the regiment's 3d Battalion conducted combat training, with the USS Whitfield County (LST-1169) and the 9th River Assault Squadron, in the Rung Sat Special Zone. In April and May 1967, the regiment's 4th Battalion conducted operations in the Rung Sat Special Zone.

Beginning in April 1967, the regiment's 3d Battalion deployed to the Mekong Delta proper. By May of that same year it began to conduct combat operations near Ap Bac; that same month, the regiment's 4th Battalion completed operations in Rung Sat and began operations in the Mekong Delta. On 19 May 1967, the 2d Brigade's headquarters came under attack on the banks of the Mỹ Tho River, and the regiment's 3d Battalion was heavily engaged in thwarting the attack. In June 1967, the regiment took part in Operation Concordia, with the USS Colleton (APB-36) providing medical support. In early July 1967, operations were conducted in the Gò Công Province; at the end of that month, the regiment moved to Can Guioc. In August, and early September, the regiment operated in the Long An Province, supporting units from the Republic of Vietnam Marine Division. From October 1967 until January 1968, the regiment was involved in Operations Coronado V & IX, which ended when the regiment embarked on the USS Benewah (APB-35).

During the Tet Offensive, in early February, the regiment fought heavily in and around Mỹ Tho in Operation Coronado X. From mid-February and into early March, the regiment took part in Operation Coronado XI. Following that operation, the regiment took part in Operation Truong Cong Dinh until April. Several helicopters were lost due to enemy fire, and two artillery barges sunk; the Benewah was struck by enemy fire, and one LCM was sunk. In July, the regiment's 4th Battalion conducted operations with the South Vietnamese Army's 9th Division. In October, two of the regiment's battalions conducted pacification operations in Kiến Hòa province.

### Post-Vietnam and 21st century

Following the regiment's deployment to Vietnam, its battalions were progressively inactivated. The 3d Battalion was the first to be inactivated, doing so at Fort Riley in August 1969; this was followed by the 2d Battalion, which was inactivated at Fort Lewis in October 1970, and the 1st Battalion in November 1972. This period of inactivation was short lived, as the 2d Battalion was reactivated at Fort Lewis in November 1972, while the 3d Battalion was reactivated at the same base in March 1973. During the remainder of the 1970s and into the late 1980s, the 2d and 3d Battalions remained with the 9th Infantry Division. although, the regiment was withdrawn from the Combat Arms Regimental System and was reorganized into the United States Army Regimental System. This process continued until August 1988 when the 2d Battalion was inactivated again. In 1991, the 9th Infantry Division was inactivated; due to this the 3d Battalion was assigned to the 199th Infantry Brigade, but was later inactivated in January 1994 at Fort Polk.

In April 1996, the regiment was transferred to the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command. From the regiment's transfer to Training and Doctrine Command, until February 1999, the regiment was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood; beginning in March 1999 the regiment has been stationed at Fort Benning. As of December 2013, 2d Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment is stationed at Sand Hill; the battalion falls under the 194th Armored Brigade, and Maneuver Center of Excellence. On 8 April 2013, an inactivation ceremony was held for the 3d Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment, resulting in a reduction of 44 soldier and 27 civilian positions. On 4 March 2019, 3d Battalion was re-activated in the 198th Infantry Brigade for infantry one station unit training.

## Regimental lineage

The regiment's lineage is as follows:

- Constituted 15 May 1917 in the Regular Army as the 47th Infantry
- Organized 1 June 1917 at Syracuse, New York
- Assigned 19 November 1917 to the 4th Division
- Inactivated 22 September 1921 at Camp Lewis, Washington
- Relieved 15 August 1927 from assignment to the 4th Division and assigned to the 7th Division
- Relieved 1 October 1933 from assignment to the 7th Division
- Assigned 1 August 1940 to the 9th Division (later redesignated as the 9th Infantry Division)
- Activated 10 August 1940 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina
- Inactivated 31 December 1946 in Germany
- Activated 15 July 1947 at Fort Dix, New Jersey
- Relieved 1 December 1957 from assignment to the 9th Infantry Division and reorganized as a parent regiment under the Combat Arms Regimental System
- Withdrawn 16 June 1986 from the Combat Arms Regimental System and reorganized under the United States Army Regimental System
- Transferred 15 April 1996 to the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command

## Honors

The regiment's campaign participation credits, and decorations, are as follows:

### Campaign participation credit

World War I: Aisne-Marne; St. Mihiel; Meuse-Argonne; Champagne 1918; Lorraine 1918

World War II: Algeria-French Morocco (with arrowhead); Tunisia; Sicily; Normandy; Northern France; Rhineland; Ardennes-Alsace; Central Europe

Vietnam: Counteroffensive, Phase II; Counteroffensive, Phase III; Tet Counteroffensive; Counteroffensive, Phase IV; Counteroffensive, Phase V; Counteroffensive, Phase VI; Tet 69/Counteroffensive; Summer-Fall 1969; Winter-Spring 1970; Sanctuary Counteroffensive; Counteroffensive, Phase VII

### Decorations

- Presidential Unit Citation (Army) for Cherbourg
- Presidential Unit Citation (Army) for Hague Peninsula
- Presidential Unit Citation (Army) for Wilhelmshoe, Germany
- Presidential Unit Citation (Army) for Roetgen, Germany
- Presidential Unit Citation (Army) for Nothberg, Germany
- Presidential Unit Citation (Army) for Freuzenbeg Castle
- Presidential Unit Citation (Army) for Remagen, Germany
- Presidential Unit Citation (Army) for Oberkirchen, Germany
- Presidential Unit Citation (Army) for Mekong Delta
- Valorous Unit Award for Long Binh – Bien Hoa
- Valorous Unit Award for Saigon
- Valorous Unit Award for Fish Hook
- Meritorious Unit Commendation (Army) for Vietnam 1968
- French Croix de Guerre with Palm, World War II for Cherbourg
- Belgian Fourragere 1940
  - Cited in the Order of the Day of the Belgian Army for action at the Meuse River
  - Cited in the Order of the Day of the Belgian Army for action in the Ardennes

## See also

### Medal of Honor recipients

- Specialist Four Edward A. DeVore Jr. Vietnam War
- Private First Class James W. Fous Vietnam War
- Specialist Four George C. Lang Vietnam War
- Sergeant William Shemin World War I
- Private First Class Carl V. Sheridan World War II

Infantry regiment of the United States Army

Infantry regiments of the United States Army in World War II

Military units and formations established in 1917

Military units and formations of the United States Army in the Vietnam War

United States Army regiments of World War I