40th Engineers Uniform

[cwnorma]

All,

 

Taking a break from the female uniforms this week. More to follow but I felt like doing something different.

 

This is my Great Grandfather's uniform.

 

My Great Grandfather, Corporal Earl Riggs, Company A, 40th Engineers, was an artist who lived on the shark river in NJ. Earl, or Popper Earl as he was known to us kids, joined the Army in 1917. Family legend has it that the reason he joined the Army was to get some time away from his battle axe wife. I remember her from when I was a kid, and let me tell you she lived up to that appelation! Before Earl's death, I used to ride my bike over to visit him in the afternoons after school. In 1976, he gave me his WW1 uniform.

 

Camoflauge was in its infancy in WW1. In fact, there were two competing schools of thought, dazzle, and what we know as muting. Under the dazzle theory, an item could be painted garishly, with spots or geometric designs, this was an effort to "fool the observer's eye. An observer after all would be looking for a large grey field pice, not a big red white and blue polka-dotted one! Although dazzle was largely reputiated by the end of the war, falling into disuse except on ships where it was thought that dazzle schemes would help break up the silhouette at sea, there remain today many photographs of WW1 dazzle camoflauge. A good example of the wierd ideas of WW1 camoflauge are some of the strange painted patterns on WW1 helmets. Recognizing that there was an large artistic component to camoflauge, the Army created the 40th Engineers entirely of professional artists.

 

 

 

Earl's uniform. His Dog tags are on the pocket.

 

 

Earl's Hat Note the collar insignia. I have panoramic photos of both Company A and the entire regiment, and NONE have numbered or lettered disks.

 

 

This is what the SSI for the 40th Engineers should look like. I have seen many fakes over the years, and only a few originals.

 

Chris

[Rattle]

Great personal uniform and nice story

 

Regards,

Stephan

[cwnorma]

I found a couple of pictures of my Great Grandfather:

 

 

Chris

[776thamtrac]

Fantastic story and uniform! Especially nice that it's from within your family.