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1st Division Jacket with Black Sleeve Diamond


GIKyle
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Putting the war room together and getting some things put in place. Good time to show this interesting uniform. Great named 16th Infantry jacket to Donald Dries, an old Army guy who served for some time with the division. A couple interesting points on this jacket: First, the remnants of a small 1st Division patch on the overseas cap - how I wish that was still there! Second, the black diamond on the lower right sleeve. I suspect he may have been wounded severely enough to warrant discharge before mass-demobilization and the creation of the ruptured duck patch, as it reminds me of the white discharge diamond on some USMC jackets. Nevertheless, I am a fan of this one.

 

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Very Interesting, I found his discharge on Ancestry. With that discharge date I would definitely assume the wounding to be the reason. I love to see those early discharge uniforms!

 

-Seth

 

Name: Donald Dries Gender: Male Birth Date: 16 Nov 1919 Death Date: 9 Jun 1993 Branch 1: ARMY Enlistment Date 1: 8 Dec 1939 Release Date 1: 20 Jan 1945

 

EDIT - I found his find a grave as well, it mentions Marine Corps service. I put his name in the muster rolls and it shows a Donald Dries enlisting in the USMC on Aug 24th, 1937 and being part of Company B, First Battation, Fmcr, Armory Foot of 52nd Street, Brooklyn, New York and Company ''C'', First Battalion, Usmcr State Armory Rochester, New York until September 1939.

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Salvage Sailor

A couple more shots - I give up on trying to figure out which may my photos will rotate.

 

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Nice combat vet uniform, the 16th Infantry Regiment was always leading the way.

 

If you click on the photos, they will rotate for viewing.

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So was the black diamond to show he had been legitimately discharged and was not an AWOL soldier?

That's my initial thought, but have not found anything in black and white as of yet.

 

Kyle

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  • 1 month later...

Matt (2ndInfDiv)'s NPRC research yielded this morning report - Dries was actually WIA in Sicily and returned to duty. He was pulled from the line on 1 August for exhaustion and ZI'd, then evidently discharged.

 

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Really nice uniform! I love these uniforms belonging to service members with early service pre-ww2! Good job on the research so far! Thanks for sharing!

Hunt

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  • 1 year later...

Kicking this up in case someone has uncovered evidence or another example of the odd black diamond patch.

 

Kyle

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huntssurplus

If I had to guess, it was most likely a discharge patch opposed to a patch showing prior USMC Service. Similar to the white diamond discharge patch on USMC uniforms.

Still an awesome uniform though. And I’ll keep my eye out for anymore like it. Might have been reserved for a specific discharge point?

Hunt


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Government Issue

Wonder if by exhaustion they meant combat fatigue in the sense that he started exhibiting aspects of PTSD? I know they didn't use that term back then, but I have seen where it was referred to as such. I like the hand made mini patch on the cap. Reminds me of a hand made full size one that I picked up within the last year. 

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  • 3 years later...

Small update courtesy of Ancestry.  A WD press release concentrates on his battalion XO who led the repulse of 35-40 Mark IV and VI tanks in Sicily.  Very good read that details my guy's wounding.  Not hard to believe this action likely contributed to his combat exhaustion in 1944. 

 

 

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