Rare Patches - Bring Out Some Photos

[General Apathy]

 

disneydave said:

This patch was created by my friend Emmet Cook, a B-17 bombardier whose plane was shot down over Palermo Harbor. He was eventually incarcerated at Stalag Luft III, the POW camp made famous for the so-called "Great Escape."

 

Hi Dave, great patch love it a lot.

 

Bullion 2nd Div.

 

ken

 

 

 

16th inf. Regiment pocket patch

 

 

 

Amphbious Engineer Patch

 

 

 

Bullion Korea

[Andrei]

 

Recon Team Cobra, CCC/TF1AE, Vietnam.

[General Apathy]

 

 

CBI Chest Patch

 

ken

 

 

 

1st Special Service Troop, Marine Division

 

Anyone know anything about this one, background heavily faded, little square sticky area where the price ticket was

 

ken

[Bill K]

Dave, Dave, Mort,

Fantastic stuff! Here's a few more to oogle. 1207th Eng. Fire Fighting Platoon and some 100th Inf Battalion tabs (the Purple heart Bn).

Bill

 

Two more, this time Field Artillery: 64th FA BN (Lancer is part of the unit's motto "Lancer Vince") and 609th FA Bn.

[PATCHRAT]

here's a German made tab for the 862 ENG AVN BN.

Anyone know for sure if it was worn over the SCAWAF SSI or the USAF EUROPE SSI?

 

801 AVN ENG

[disneydave]

I have a friend who collects patches featuring only WW II Disney designs. Here's a beauty from his collection. Silkscreen on felt for the 47th Bombardment Squadron. The crow is from Dumbo. I've held this one in my hands and it's just gorgeous!

 

Another one from my friend's collection, designed for the Maintenance Engineers. The character is Lampwick from Pinocchio. The patch is hand tooled leather and was made in-theater in Italy. The maker added a cross to the end of the grease gun, which was not present in the original design.

 

 

Here's the original pencil art for the patch in the previous post. Notice there is no cross on the end of the grease gun. This design was created by Disney artist Hank Porter.

 

[mortaydc60]

Meaning no disrespect to anyone but my own definition of a rare patch is one is hard to come-by because they are in short supply for whatever reason and one that is little known and obscure due mostly to lack of or just inadequate knowledge. Usually these also happen to be more costly again due to supply and demand. What I have tried to show are examples that usually fit this definition. I try to not show bullion examples of patches eventhough they can be more costly but not necessarily rare. The exception would be a bullion Alamo Scout to me. So with this off the table I would like to show some WW1 patches. Dan Griffin showed his great examples of aviation units so I picked another branch and that is Engineers. I will start off with a patch that is borderline rare but I will show variations that most were not aware exist for the 14th Engineers. These first two are the versions normally found;  but note the different colors.

 

 

Next version of 14th Eng

 

Another version in bullion which is rare to find but also the colors are not the norm.

 

Here is a 14th with the number added and has a blue section.

[mortaydc60]

More of Engineers with Liberty Loan style patches;both of which are killer with the 14th Eng perhaps the rarest one in the whole set of Liberty Loans.

 

Leaving the 14th Eng but want to mention that most collecters are not aware of these color variations,but signifigance is not known at least to me. Next unit I have to thank Vintageproductions. Was previously unknown to me. This is the 7th Eng

 

The next unit often appears as an unknown on lists and is not easy to find;and that is the 18th Eng,and have two versions to show.

 

Finally for tonight the hands down rarest of the lot. Believe this to be one of a kind. Until I found at the Show of Shows two years ago had only seen as pencil sketch and that was 30 plus years ago;

 

 

I almost could not believe my eyes when I saw this on a well known WW1 dealers table. To me one of the coolest designs and that is for the 108th Eng.

 

 

Sorry but have one one to show and that is for the 34th Eng which was not seen until a few years ago and hit the market and became more available but have a variation that is not common. the shield variation is the more uncommon.

 

One more to show and I do not believe has a definite ID but believe is Engineer but often confused for 76th Div variation.

[34BDQ]

WWI 40th Engineers

 

Not being a WWI collector I am not sure how rare the 40th Engineer patch is. However, this DI made in France I believe is one of only two known.

[Garth Thompson]

Finally for tonight the hands down rarest of the lot. Believe this to be one of a kind. Until I found at the Show of Shows two years ago had only seen as pencil sketch and that was 30 plus years ago; I almost could not believe my eyes when I saw this on a well known WW1 dealers table. To me one of the coolest designs and that is for the 108th Eng.

Mort,

The picture doesn't do this one justice. I saw this SSI at the SOS when you obtained it. It is one of the best looking WW1 patches I've ever seen. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Garth

[snake36bravo]

I know I show this all the time but it's one of my favorites. reversed 101st from the 1st run and in error. This made it to Vietnam.

[34BDQ]

The Eagle Flight patch was removed from a uniform and by comparison you will the see greater detail in this patch when compared with the one made by “Cheap Charlie” (Luong –Phan). Luong-Phan’s patch has greater detail in the wings because it is highlighted by an orange thread, but lacks the detail of the parachute panels. When viewing the Team patch you can see how the seamstress utilized the background color to accentuate the wings which expresses her proficiency and technical skills.

 

Eagle Flight was a company size reaction force that had its beginnings in October 1964 as a Mobile Reaction Force in II Corps, and was the forerunner of the Mobile Strike Force more commonly known as Mike Force. Eagle Flight was in existence for less than a year (1966-1967) prior to the formation of Mike Force. There were six USSF personnel initially with the team.

 

Both the quilted Lac Thien (A-326) and Eagle Flight patches are Team made patches.

[pconrad02]

Ok here's one of mine:

1st Arctic Search and Rescue Squadron

 

[48MMS]

Here's another, the 310th Combat Defense Squadron, Schilling AFB, Kansas if I recall.

 

Here is a SAC Command patch with a Ernest Harmon AFB tab, which is not a separate tab sewed on, but part of the actual patch. Never seen another, nor do I know the story behind it. I would suspect it is not a one of a kind, but one I'd label as rare.

 

Here's a 456th Airborne Missile Maintenance Squadron. . . .

 

Found another from my collection, my rarest Combat Defense Squadron, the 866th that was at McConnell AFB for less than two years and survives today as the 384th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron.

 

Here's one I got a few years back that was at Vandenberg AFB, the 4300th Support Squadron,

[34BDQ]

Certainly one of the rarest patches of the Vietnam War, the Training Relations and Instruction Mission (TRIM) went into operation on February 12, 1955 and was deactivated on April 28, 1956, when the French withdrew their advisors. This joint Franco-American unit included only33 US and 28 French officers and enlisted men.

 

When the French received their metal badges with the same design, they preferred to used it as a pocket hanger, removed their patches from their sleeves and most likely threw them away. The short life and small strength of the mission explains the rarity of this patch. It is the first patch used by U.S. Personnel in Vietnam.

[Garth Thompson]

Here is a WW1 patch I think is fairly scarce. It is a SSI for the 303rd Heavy Artillery Regiment 76th Division. It is on a uniform belonging to Joseph Therriault HQ company.

Garth

 

Patch and matching painted helmet all from Mr. Therriault's estate.

Garth

[checkit]

My favorite recent pickup - a U.S. made chenille patch and DI for the 35th Fighter Pursuit Group. Apparently, the guy was a squadron executive officer before hostilities began, then got rated as a dive bomber pilot. He was the only survivor when the bomber he was co-piloting crash landed in Australia.

 

 

[checkit]

What if a patch was so "rare" that nobody cared? I have been collecting Merchant Marine blazer patches for 15 years, and have never seen or heard of another one of these. Looks like a Disney design. The semaphore flags spell out "USMM". My dad was in the Merchant Marine, which sparked my interest, and there is a handful of other Maritime Service collectors, otherwise, this stuff is WAY off the radar screen.

 

[disneydave]

What if a patch was so "rare" that nobody cared? I have been collecting Merchant Marine blazer patches for 15 years, and have never seen or heard of another one of these. Looks like a Disney design. The semaphore flags spell out "USMM". My dad was in the Merchant Marine, which sparked my interest, and there is a handful of other Maritime Service collectors, otherwise, this stuff is WAY off the radar screen.

 

 

What you actually have here is a patch featuring the Disney-designed insignia for the USS Sea Dog (SS-401). The design was created in the summer of 1944 by Disney artist Hank Porter.

 

The sub was named after a small shark found in the North Atlantic and was commissioned June 1944.

 

First war patrol sank an armed trawler, a converted gunboat, and a third ship. Later attacked two battleships and a destroyer with no success. Second patrol joined two other submarines but the wolf pack had no successful hits. Third patrol performed lifeguard duties rescuing one airman, and sank a cargo ship. During the fourth patrol was credited with the destruction of two cargo ships, a freighter, a passenger-cargo ship, and two merchant vessels. Was just starting her fifth patrol when the war ended.

 

Sea Dog was decommissioned June 1956.

 

(And by the way, I care, at least about this patch anyway).

[Siamundo]

Finally for tonight the hands down rarest of the lot. Believe this to be one of a kind. Until I found at the Show of Shows two years ago had only seen as pencil sketch and that was 30 plus years ago; I almost could not believe my eyes when I saw this on a well known WW1 dealers table. To me one of the coolest designs and that is for the 108th Eng.

Hello, I thought I might share this bit of information as it relates to your patch. With regards to your identification as the 108th Engineers, I have a copy of the WW I unit hisotry rom the 308th Engineers, "From Ohio to the Rhine and Back", and this color plate appears inside. Hope this helps.

[vostoktrading]

This MARS patch is modestly rare but doesn't come close to most of the incredible things I've seen on this thread! Jon

[Allan H.]

I don't want this thread to go away. It has already fallen back two pages.

Here's one that I think you could genuinely call rare. It is for the tank company of the 18th Infantry Regiment. The patch is German bevo made and was only worn for a couple of months immediately after WWII.

[rustywings]

I doubt if my WWII era Contract Flight Instructor and Flying Cadet patches qualify as being "rare" in the eyes of some patch collectors, but they're certainly not common or easy to locate. As a novice, I find collecting old Army flight school patches fulfills my "thrill-of-the-hunt" needs...and there's enough variety to keep it interesting. Here's some of my better patches. Russ

 

A few more Flight Instructor and Flying cadet patches...

 

A few more...

[tredhed2]

Well Russ, this one is almost up there (pun intended). Okmulgee is approx 1 hour S. of Tulsa, down the Beeline. I hit several antiques stores there w/ no luck; funny, everyone I talked to there recalls a German POW camp, but not the Glider School. My mother in law recalls the planes, as they "had no engines".

[Teamski]

Thanks Ski, well I finally got an answer to what it was :thumbsup: , never seen mention anywhere else of it, had the thing thirty years.

 

lewis

 

 

Sorry to be a buzzkill. I got this one in the UK and was really excited about it until I found out it was a Patch King repro..... Oh well. Usually, they are easy to point out with the designation banner right below the patch, but if you cut that off, then schmucks like me can be tricked the first time around. That said, the person didn't know anthing about it and I traded patches for it that I didn't have any money in, so it was a very cheap lesson.

 

-Ski