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Background trimmings (ovals) question


Sabrejet
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The units in 3rd Brigade were still airborne when I was at Fort Campbell in 72-74. I went through airborne school prior to going to AIT at Fort Polk, I went through mortar training down there before going to Fort Campbell. I was in 1/503rd for a few months, before getting transferred to 1/506th as an instructor for volunteer army troops doing their OJT in combat arms.

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  • 3 years later...

An old thread I stumbled on to here. I thought I might resurrect it in answer to one question at least, this being the wear of ovals within the 101st Airborne Division in 1968 after it was redesignated as an Airmoble division and the answer is no, there were no longer ovals worn in the division after it was redesignated. In late 1967 the remainder of the 101 arrived in South Vietnam, it did not join with its 1st Brigade at first, the remaining division elements went straight to III corps while the 1st Brigade continued it's operation's in II Corps, the division HQ settled in Bien Hoa in III Corps, but it,s elements where scattered all over Vietnam's III, II and I corps, the Division had like the 1st Cav Division became a Fire Brigade. From the very outset of the Division arriving in Vietnam it became apparant that it, because of a critical shortage of jump qualified ENLISTEDMEN, could not maintain itself for long as a full status jump unit, also adding to this was that the 101 from the moment it entered combat was begining to incur serious losses in casualties of all types. As early as Febuary 1968 it was decided to assign non Airborne personel to the units while keeping the 1st brigade as a jump status unit, even here in the 1st Brigade it was begining to look that this too was impossible due to many original members starting to become short, so they had no choice, non airborne personel had to assigned to the 1st brigade as well. As the winter turned to spring the Infantry units of the Division was unofficialy redesignated as airmobile, very few original jump qualified men remained in the units espescialy the infantry, the spring of 1968 essentially put the nail in the coffin of the old 101 and as the spring turned to summer, it was in august officialy redesignated as the 101st Air Cavalry Division, this new title did not FLY as it were with the men of the Division and it was rather quickly officialy re-redesignated back to the 101st Airborne Division ( AIRMOBILE ) a much more palatable title.

 

During all this time to be sure you did see airborne qualified personel throughout the division, in particular, officers and second tour men, but since the division was no longer on jump status with it's units now redesignated Airmobile, ovals where not autherized to be worn, even if a man was jump qualified, the units where no longer autherized to wear ovals, the only units to have ovals was the new airborne ranger company that was formed in Febuary 1969, L company 75th Infantry (RANGER) they wore an unautherized oval which despite it's unofficial-ness was permited to be worn locally. When individual men after the autumn of 1968, winter of 1968/1969 and later in 1971/1972 when full units of the 101 began to leave Vietnam they could be seen only attired as regular soldiers in there Khakis, no jump boots and no Parachute/Glider patch on the Garrison Cap, if one would be seen wearing the airborne distictives he would no doubt be an old timer leaving as an individual and would be wearing them on his own initiative. 1972 seen the the two battalions of the 327th Infantry leave Vietnam, one these Battalions the 1st was extensivly photographed in Oakland in late January, one company, A company was given a parade thrown by the town of San Mateo, in some of the photos where the men are in their AG Class A uniforms you see the uniforms like any other infantrymen to include the DIs on the garrison cap. During the parade the unit wore full combat gear with weapons and jungle fatiques, steel helmets interrestingly with airborne liners, most likely newly issued at the Oakland Army Terminal as the covers look brand spanking new along with the chin straps/A yokes. The Battalion then left Caifornia and when to Fort Campbell, where I gather some of them where seperated from the service, its interresting to note that this was a unit relocation movement and not a one stop in Oakland inactivation job.

 

When the entire 101st was back at Fort Campbell it continued in it's airmobile role, the 3rd Brigade went back on jump status however using assets from the inactivated 173rd Airborne Division and several support units went back on jump status as well. In 1974 the whole division was redesignated as AIR ASSAULT and a new concept was initiated, that of the Air Assault school to train not only men being assigned to the 101 but also troops from a wide range of units and men with certain MOSs, the Air Assault badge was insituted at that time and was now autherized to be worn within the 101 on the traditional ovals that where autherized in the 60s when the Division was a full fleged jump unit, the Department of the Army also re-autherized the wear of bloused boots and parachute/glider badges on garrison caps for the 101st Airborne Division ( AIR ASSAULT ) at this time.

Please excuse my early meandering rambles on one of my earlier efforts above, but I want to open the topic to add these and some more ramblings, this time I hope, being a little more coherent :lol:

 

post-34986-0-76181600-1431060142.jpgpost-34986-0-11549000-1431060392.jpg

 

Here are but two photos from the above mentioned arrival home of the 1st Battalion 327th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile) in late January 1972. Low quarters, no Para Glider badges but DIs on caps, not one jump qualified one in these photos at least, some wear a Belgian Rope while some do not, at least two are not wearing a Blue Rope, but they are wearing Blue discs, one even has no DI, but as we see there's seems to be one constant, by 1972, the unit lost all it's trappings of it's former jump status. This is just but one unit. It's safe to say I think that soldiers in the other battalions at this time would have a similar appearance in their Class As and or Khakis, with any jump boots, or if jump qualified being worn would be as an individual preference I,m thinking, possibly in the RVN itself, or just bording the plane in the RVN (one photo from this series does show one GI, a E-5, in khakis with his boots bloused as he's bounding down flight stairs from the airliner after it touched down in Oakland, but he's the only one, all the others have low quarters on, and he also ain't got no jump badge).

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  • 8 months later...

Here are some photos of soldiers of the 3rd Brigade 82nd Airborne Division taken in Vietnam, all wearing ovals with jump wings. The 3rd Brigade deployed to Vietnam as a fully jump qualified unit but in May 1968 it was taken off jump status and became light infantry. Most officers and some enlisted men subsequently assigned to the brigade were jump qualified but the unit itself, like the 101st after 1968, was not on jump status. All of the following photos were taken no earlier than October 1968, so it was well after the 3rd Brigade was no longer on jump status.

 

The first photo shows an enlisted man of the 1st Battalion 505th Infantry wearing his oval and wings on his cap. It does appear to be sewn down. I can't make out whether it is a generic 505th Infantry oval or whether it has the tick marks representing the 1st Battalion.

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Here's an officer of the 1st Battalion 505th Infantry wearing his oval on his khakis. It does not appear to be sewn down. Note he is also wearing the Airborne patch on his overseas cap.

post-1761-0-47286400-1454446625.jpg

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By the way, getting back to the question originally posed in the post, I think you could call this an example of why it was more practical to simply attach an oval to a uniform by pinning jump wings through it rather than sewing it down. It looks like rather than having the oval removed and placed higher over his pocket to allow for the wear of his new ribbon, he simply placed the ribbon on top of the oval, which I'm pretty sure was not regulation.

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  • 1 month later...

Here is a member of the 1st Battalion 508th Infantry of the 3rd Brigade 82nd Airborne Division wearing his jump wings on an oval on his cap in Vietnam. Note that it does have the tick mark representing the 1st Battalion.

 

This was taken in September 1968, about four months after the 3rd Brigade was taken off jump status, but at a time when many of the members of the brigade were still jump qualified.

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post-1761-0-68837600-1458228202.jpg

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