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The ubiquitous Honorable Service Lapel Button aka Ruptured Duck


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My thanks to each and every one of my fellow Forum members that have added to this thread. It has been a joy to see so many variations, some quite rare! I never thought there would be much interest in this subject when I first posted, please continue to add and preserve for future generations this aspect of the history of our honored Vets! God bless all who have served and who currently serve.

 

My best to you all!

 

Joe

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The most unworn badge in history. I have never seen a WW2 vet ever wear one .

 

 

W

Typical exception, I suppose - but, I have a photo of my father wearing his on a civilian suit lapel for his 1946 University of Missouri class picture.

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I think they were worn quite a bit on the years after the war. I've seen photos and read about them often. There's a lot of mention of them in yank magazine and the best years of our lives etc.

I don't think they were meant to be worn decades later

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The pin back versions are for females. Harder to find than the standard button hole version.

 

Gary B

Gary, what's your source for the pinback ducks being for women? Was just curious, as like I said, I've developed a newfound fascination with these.... The three that arrived today included a plated sterling pinback, an unmarked screwback and a gold-filled screwback. All for $3 shipped!

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Gary, what's your source for the pinback ducks being for women? Was just curious, as like I said, I've developed a newfound fascination with these.... The three that arrived today included a plated sterling pinback, an unmarked screwback and a gold-filled screwback. All for $3 shipped!

Typically, if memory serves, women's jackets did not have buttons/buttonholes on the lapels.

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Brig is correct. Women's jackets did not have a lapel slot for a button so their insignia were pinbacks. Also note that the WAVE, WAC & SPAR insignia (for women) are all pin back.

 

Gary B

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I appreciate that. If it would be of interest, I'll post mine. I have two normal button backed ones that belonged to a 30th Div man, but these new ones seem like their quality is at a higher level overall. Just cool to see the differences.

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Garandomatic

Here are mine. The three on the left are the first assortment that I got. On top is a screwback, a woman's sterling pinback is below, and the bottom one is a nice sterling/gold-filled piece. The dark and worn one in the center arrived today, and is a potmetal button-back missing much of its finish. The three toward the right are a grouping, and while the name is gone, I will try to at least keep them together. Pretty standard duck there, and the Navy Reserve is blackened, in contrast to the bronze colored Navy Reserve insignia to their right.

post-9670-0-48973500-1483471923_thumb.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

Hello everyone!

 

I'm so pleased to see the continued interest on this topic. I've really enjoyed checking in and see some fine examples posted by other members.

 

I've added some new pieces in my collection. I do hope I'm not off topic in this thread for this first post, but I thought it was appropriate to share information on this device.

 

First up is an oversized postal cover featuring the Honorable Service Lapel device, and the following two images are (finally) a 10K gold screw-back example. I'm very happy to have finally obtained an example of this variation, which shows it was certainly something that was proudly worn on those who served!

 

Thank you all again!

 

Best wishes,

 

Joe

 

post-48324-0-94708800-1489876139_thumb.jpg

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  • 8 months later...
  • 1 year later...
russ santangelo

What is the bottom one in the box? Years ago, an Army?Navy store was closing in Philadelphia and they let me scrounge around the basement. I found, and bought, almost 2,000 of these in Sterling on the original cards.

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Garandomatic

Good to see this back up. I'm giving a few of my seniors a "ruptured duck" for graduating this year. Made my 20th Century Conflict class a living hell because to them, it was a hang out period with their favorite teacher, and I wanted to genuinely get stuff done, but they're really, really good kids regardless.

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Great to see this revived...I have gotten a general interest in lapel buttons lately, so timing is great

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  • 3 months later...

Posted the items pictured in A DUI forum and the consensus was they are attachments for the screw backed version of ruptured ducks. Would appreciate any further information, identification or a place to reseaarch them more. Thanks in advance

 

post-251987-0-50047300-1567554570.jpg

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Going back through this topic you can see some other examples of infantry division attachements..

 

I believe the information was that the attachments were made by Fox company...and Gemsco according to the ASMIC article...

 

 

Leigh

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  • 1 year later...
On 9/3/2019 at 7:50 PM, kirkwilt said:

Posted the items pictured in A DUI forum and the consensus was they are attachments for the screw backed version of ruptured ducks. Would appreciate any further information, identification or a place to reseaarch them more. Thanks in advance

 

post-251987-0-50047300-1567554570.jpg

Yes, the DUI forum is correct.  These are scarce/rare and I believe manufactured by one company and seem to come in an endless variety of units.   I have quite a number of them that I picked up while collecting Ruptured ducks.

 

Gary B

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From my previous post on these: "Most of these unit ID pendants came "attached" to Ruptured Ducks manufactured by the Fox Company. They pendants came in a large variety of units to include USAAF, Infantry divisions and command level elements. I recall seeing these occasionally at shows in the mid 90s with many different units represented. I have not seen one at a show for years."

 

Gary B

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  • 4 months later...

My humble contribution. I’ve not been a collector of these but came into this bunch with a lot of lapel pins. Just an interesting lot with every one being slightly different 

50F5E335-B203-4B24-BB87-8B7488CDEA34.jpeg

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109A0ED8-F017-45D4-9489-73E8DEFBA896.jpeg

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  • 1 year later...

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