San Antonio Reunion 2007
Article from MySA.com http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/stories/MYSA082607.04B.State.polar_bears.2f36d41.html
Army Polar Bear regiment's reunion brings spirited vets together in S.A.
Web Posted: 08/26/2007 01:03 AM CDT
Jerry Needham
Express-News
Soldiers and family members from the Polar Bears, one of the Army's most unusual fighting units, gathered in San Antonio this weekend to reminisce and keep alive old traditions.
The 31st Infantry Regiment, nicknamed the Polar Bears for guarding Russia's Trans-Siberian railway in 1918 and 1919, is unusual because it was formed and spent most of its life on foreign soil. Organized in the Philippines in 1916 from several overseas units, it wasn't until 1958 that one of its battalions finally was based in the United States.
"Every man in this room has been under enemy fire," retired chaplain Col. Bill Burns, a San Antonio resident who served in Vietnam, said during a Saturday social session at El Tropicano Riverwalk Hotel.
Three of the regiment association's 1,175 members are survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March in the Philippines early in World War II, Burns said.
Swan Soderlind, 72, who was with the regiment's 4th Battalion in Korea and lives in Huntington Beach, Calif., said, "A lot got hurt or killed, so that's why you're grateful that 50 to 55 years later you can come and visit with your buddies."
"It's a personal bond," he said. "Very few people get in that position where you come so close to the line, and then with your brothers kind of sharing that, you mysteriously form a kind of bond."
Although the men shared many of the horrors of war, that's something most choose not to talk about, said former 6th Battalion Vietnam veteran Sgt. Jerry White of Kyle.
"We spend most of our time laughing and calling somebody names that we used to call them and remembering all the stupid things that we used to do and just generally having a good time," White said. "It's a remarkable emotional experience that's beyond description."
Retired Lt. Gen. Sam Wetzel, named the regiment's honorary colonel by the Army, said a unique ceremony during the annual banquet revolves around its Shanghai Bowl.
Regiment officers stationed in Shanghai, China, in 1932 pitched in about 1,600 silver dollars to have a silver punch bowl with matching cups crafted, each cup engraved with one of their names. The set was buried just before the surrender at Bataan, then recovered after the war.
It's kept at the home of the regiment's only active unit - the 4th Battalion of the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y. - but brought out each year for the ceremony.
"During the ceremony, we have representatives who will pour in a bottle of liquor from all the different areas that the 31st Regiment served in," White said. "They'll pour in something from every country."
 jneedham@express-news.net
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