What era? 13th infantry regiment bullion and FE SSIs

[ocsfollowme]

I believe these are both Korean War era SSIs. Or are they later?

 

I'm venturing into the Infantry Regiment SSIs. Collecting never ends

 

[vzemke]

Pocket patches, not technically SSI.

 

1950s or possibly later. The bullion one is probably a "blazer" patch, meant to be worn on the pocket of a civilian blazer, possibly for reunions or civilian attire at the officers club, etc. Likely made to pin on, the clutch backing having come loose on this one.

[patches]

I bet the cloth pocket patch was worn by a unit of the 13th Infantry was perminentely assigned to the 1st Infantry Division. The 1st Battle Group 13th Infantry was a part of the Big Red One from February 1959 till April 1963. The odd non traditional Infantry assignments to divisions was the result of the PENTOMIC reorganizations of 1957.

 

At this time the Big Red One had none of it's traditional Infantry units assigned to it, save the 1st BG 28th Inf, though the 28th Inf was transferd out in early WWII over to the 8th Inf Div and fought with them for the entire war.

 

The line up for the Infantry units of the Big Red One during the PENTOMIC era was:

 

1st Battle Group 5th Infantry

 

2nd Battle Group 8th Infantry

2nd Battle Group 12th Infantry

 

1st Battle Group 13th Infantry

 

1st Battle Group 28th Infantry

 

Pocket Patches for all these units are know to collectors, they're seen for sale at any shows one goes to. We recently discovered a photo of the 5th Infantry pocket patch being worn within the Big Red One by a GI of the 1st BG 5th Inf, so it stands to reason these other Infantry BGs too wore theirs. But it's very hard to find photos of these PPs being worn, we just got lucky with the 5th Inf one.

 

During this period other Divisions had sister Battle Groups from the above Big Red One serving in them, but a search does not seem to show these PPs being worn at all by these BGs. For instance, I have a 1962 4th Infantry Division yearbook, it's got loads of photos for each unit in it, the section for the 1st Battle Group 8th Infantry and the 1st Battle Group 12th Infantry we see absolutly no 8th Infantry or 12th Infantry Pocket Patches being worn. This leads me to believe these PPs for the 8th and 12th Infantrys were worn only when these units were in the Big Red One circa 1959-63.