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2 tour Korea, 3 tour Vietnam 101st Airborne Sgt. Maj. estate find


LuftStalg1
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I never go to an estate sale with any expectations to find any Militaria as I inevitably here “there was a bunch of stuff that went earlier” IF they had anything at all. Well, I have to say my heart darn near stopped when I walked into the back room of this small home estate sale to see it decorated wall to wall with 101st airborne stuff. Of course I immediately grabbed the Ike jacket with all the patches still on it then proceeded to rapidly snatch up anything and everything I could hold onto. The wonderful woman, the executor, running the sale walked in with a wicker basket for me to use. After looting the room and trying to catch my breath and not seem too excited I went in to ask about the gentleman.

 

As it turned out Sergeant Major (ret) Everett “Bill” S. Pace had passed away more then a year ago. The folks running the estate were not family but close friends of the couple and told me of how the couple had never had children and recently his widow had just come back from a family gathering and expressed how nice it was and how she was in much better shape then her siblings. She passed away suddenly just 5 days later. What I learned from talking to the friends of Sgt Major Pace was that he had served 2 tours in Korea and 3 tours in Vietnam. Because they had no children to pass things onto most of the estate was going to veteran’s organizations. When I asked about his full size medals I was told they were recently sent to the Purple Heart Museum in New York as he had received 3 Purple Hearts during his service of 33 years in total. I take it that she meant the PH society? She stated that they were moving the museum to Louisiana.

 

As they were totaling the items she would say “Oh I am so glad someone is taking this, it meant so much to them.” which made my feel good about saving the little things that would have no meaning by themselves such as the caricature of Bill with the microphone which was a reference to his being an avid square dancer. As a primary collector of WW2 AAF stuff I was still excited to put together a true Airborne display and talked to her about my plans to place everything around a torso mannequin of his uniform and what an honor it will be to keep the memory of Sergeant Major Pace alive. As I was leaving she ran out of the house and gave me the funeral program memorial that was on the wall in his 101st Airbourne room.

 

I am not sure how some of the stuff connects to him, or even if it is military related like the denim cap and wool nit cap. They had little information on things like the small dish with the Bull dog in it. So I have a lot of research ahead of me when I get home but wanted to take some quick photos of the stuff to share before it goes back in a box for its trip from TX to its new home in NY. I am truly honored to be the care taker and hope I do Sgt Maj. Pace proud. And I finally have something to share with ya’ll.

 

Mark

 

P.S. Sorry about the poor quality of the photos, it's time to buy a camera.

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