Branch of Service cloth insignia-how old?

[chcole1]

I picked these up as part of a larger group of patches. I don't normally collect rank and BOS so can someone tell me how old these are? They came with SSI that are WWII era.

 

Chris

[chcole1]

one more Finance Corps.

[36-tex]

In my opinion, those are all WWII era BOS insignia. Gold on tan and gold on brown / OD were worn in the 1940's and 1950's roughly. In the 1960's you will see gold on green and then black on green.

[patches]

I picked these up as part of a larger group of patches. I don't normally collect rank and BOS so can someone tell me how old these are? They came with SSI that are WWII era.

 

Chris

 

They are as 36tex stated WW2. They where in theory to be sewn on the lapels of officers class A coat's, OD or khaki, and on the collar's of OD shirts and khaki shirt's. There was also US patches mimicing the metal US pins made, and these would be worn on the coat's if the the officer chose to UPGRADE, as it where, the insignia on his coat. It's worth noting that these patches however really did'nt take off in it's intended purpose, with the standard metal pin's or bullion patches being the prefered type's. These patches however a found new life, being occasionaly seen with both OD and the khaki version's, worn by officer's on the collar's of their fatique shirts, starting in the post war period, through the 50's into the early 60's.

[Sabrejet]

I agree with all of the above. I've got a bunch of this stuff, mostly in pairs in their little paper packets of issue. The reason for this, I assume, is that the take up rate was not great...hence the surplus items which were left over, post-war. At the end of the day, if you were an officer, would you prefer nice shiny collar brass on your Class A's or an embroidered equivalent?! Same applies to embroidered wings...I have lots of these NOS examples too. Of the two varieties, I think the khaki backed ones were more widely used because they made sense from a laundering point of view. I actually have some WW2 khaki shirts with such embroidered BOS collar insignia. I also have unused examples embroidered on M41 field jacket poplin material and HBT too.

 

Sabrejet

[Justin B.]

Agreed, WW2-KW period. The old Tank Corps insignia was only used till 1951.

 

Best regards,

Justin B.

[patches]

I picked these up as part of a larger group of patches. I don't normally collect rank and BOS so can someone tell me how old these are? They came with SSI that are WWII era.

 

Chris

 

It should also be noted that the same thing applied to the qualification badge's that where made. These however where primerally made on khakii twill.Once again the theory was that they be worn on the khaki shirts . If the wear of the officer BOS and RANK proved unpopular, these CIB"S, JUMPWING, etc where more so. They being sewn on patches would prevent any ribbons to be worn, and to wear ribbon's and then sew on top of these a cloth CIB in example just did not right at all. It also would have nessesitated in most case's the removal of the cloth patch if one would be awarded or became eligiable for another ribbon as the whole grouping might have to have a new row added, even by a single ribbon mount, so most officer's and enlistedmen alike avoided these. The only time one of these type's could be seen, was on the khaki shirts of combat infantrymen. In the 50's it became some what of a fasion to only wear the CIB on Class A ike jacket's and khaki shirts, this was done by a great many officer's and enlistedmen alike. The men who normally affected this look where highly decorated combat infantry veterans some from WWII or korea or in many cases both, when they did have to wear ribbon,s they would only wear their valour decoration's. and nothing else. Like my other reply in regard's to the BOS and RANK, the deal applied wth the qualifaction patches, they began to be worn on fatique item,s. I have in my collection one such fatique shirt, it is an 11th airborne divison PFC presumably worn when the unit was in west germany, it has a white on khaki twill basic parachute badge surmounted by a full color EIB on khaki twill. I also have two other different shirt's one a 4th army shirt worn in the mid 50s with a 96th inf div combat patch, the other from the NY national guard's 42nd inf div's 165th inf (IT HAS IT"S PRE 1963 165th inf pocket patch on it , worn in the particular manner of all NY guard unit's I.E. above the us army tape)with a 1961 date. This one, a man with an accual irish name ( the regt being a traditional irish immirgant unit)has 7th armored div with a lucky 7th tab as a combat patch, in both cases a full color CIB on khaki twill is worn. So like the BOS and RANK the wear of these along with the khaki Q badges was a accepted practice.