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Paramarine Jump Wings


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American Heritage

These were purchased as found on the original uniform belonging to PFC Frank E. Holec. Just wanted to post here for comments on the wings. Anyway to determine maker? Just marked STERLING on the back although it is difficult to see in the photo I took. I posted this in the uniform thread but did not get any info about the wings so I am posting here in hopes some more people see these and comment.

 

I wonder if these could be Wosk Army Navy / Wosk Emporium purchased wings since Camp Gillespie was close to Broadway St in downtown San Diego. Can anyone make any conclusions based on the style or coloration of these wings?

 

thank you!

 

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American Heritage

his grad photo from El Cajon with my tribute added - may be the same wings in the photo!?

 

 

 

 

 

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I believe you are correct as your paratrooper wing looks like a duplicate of the ones that were sold on eBay from the WW2 era Harry S. Wosk surplus stock of insignia that came out of San Diego. Your wing has a lot more patina then the ones that were sold from this surplus stock being mint on a white piece of cardboard as they were probably sitting in boxes for over 60 years. The pin back looks identical in width as well as the sort of elongated ball catch. They are both solid back wings and the sterling hallmark on your wing isn't very clear but I'm guessing they match being raised small size lettering. The front of the wing is the common basic pattern except I noticed that on the left side as you face the front of the wing has a more squared off elbow or wing shoulder than the right side which is almost rounded off. This characteristic is the same on the wings sold from the Harry S. Wosk surplus stock.

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NGCoastArtillery41

Well I live about 5 minutes from Gillespie (in fact I picked up a patient from there earlier tonight) and Camp Gillespie is not very close to Broadway in downtown San Diego... Even with today's modern freeway system it takes about 20 - 30 minutes to get there without traffic. But that shop was one of the most popular for uniform items for all branches during the war here in SD.

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Since I cannot make out the sterling mark, I am going to assume that this is one of the issue wings that was presented to marines upon graduation from jump school. Trying to make the assertion that they are Wosk wings is a bit of a stretch. Yes, Wosk ran a store in World War II that sold among other things parachute badges, there were a number of different manufacturers represented in the hoard. The truth is that there are many places where a young marine could have gotten extra sets of wings to include the PX/ Clothing Sales on base.

 

Allan

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Since I cannot make out the sterling mark, I am going to assume that this is one of the issue wings that was presented to marines upon graduation from jump school. Trying to make the assertion that they are Wosk wings is a bit of a stretch. Yes, Wosk ran a store in World War II that sold among other things parachute badges, there were a number of different manufacturers represented in the hoard. The truth is that there are many places where a young marine could have gotten extra sets of wings to include the PX/ Clothing Sales on base.

 

Allan

 

Here are photos of the US basic paratrooper wings mounted on cards that were being sold through eBay from the mentioned Harry S. Wosk surplus stock. Some were mounted on cards with Harry S. Wosk printed on these cards and others were left blank but with the same three line bordering. They sure do look like they are an identical match to me except for maybe the position of the raised sterling mark. Some had the raised sterling mark high in the middle of the chute where others were low in the middle of the chute but appear to have come from the same die. They all lack any patina as they are mint unlike the one on this uniform which shows some wear as the pin is bent slightly unlike the ones sold on eBay which are real straight having never been pinned through a uniform. These Harry S. Wosk wings sold through eBay have that same squared off left wing shoulder while the right is almost rounded off. I have yet to come across a different (variation) Harry S. Wosk wing being sold through eBay as my guess is that they all seem to have come from one vendor who probably supplied these same wings to a variety of military post exchanges or even an order or two to the jump school as graduation wings. I was simply trying to point out that the wing on this uniform and the Harry S. Wosk wings that were sold on eBay look identical and since PFC Frank E. Holec was stationed in San Diego there is the possibility that this is where he obtained this wing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Same Harry S. Wosk wing but sterling low in middle of chute but identical lettering in size and both raised. The card lacks the name of Harry S. Wosk but the three line borders are the same.

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Tonomachi,

The vast majority of boxed AE Company jump wings also came out of the Harry Wosk hoard. There were also variations with a hollowed parachute on the back variety that came from the same hoard. In short, they sold BUNCHES of these when Wosk's daughters uncovered them. They started selling the AE Co wings and then realized that buyers would pay more for them in the box and so they started selling them on cards for a lower price (they actually kept the price the same and raised the prices on the AE Company wings). They also sold wings that were pinned to cards that alternated blue red blue lines on the borders.

 

Shortly after these wings came out, I asked about doing a bulk deal to buy their stock of parachute badges. The answer that I got was that they had more than I could afford to buy, leading me to believe that they had thousands and thousands of them. The bottom line is that our children and grandchildren will probably be buying Wosk wings in the future.

 

My previous post was not saying that the Holec wing was NOT a Wosk wing, but just that they could have come from a multitude of sources to include the wing that was issued to Holec upon graduation from parachute training. Does it really matter whether they came from Wosk's store?

 

Allan

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I plan to buy a pair of Jump wings from the Sisters Wosk in May.

 

I want to have a pair of wings waiting when I finally pick up a Paramarine/Iwo Coat, whenever that may be.

 

I have to be positive!

 

LF

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American Heritage

Allan

How do you know multiple makers are contained in the wosk hoard? Please post your examples.

 

Tonomachi

Thanks for your examples and evidence as well as your well thought out argument and excellent observations!

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Alan is 100% correct, they did/do have multiple manufacturers of jump wings (as well as many other things). They are still on eBay, I believe. A few years ago, I bought a boxed set of AECo wings, and a few wings on the cards.

 

Wosk was a retail uniform supply shop, and the Wosk sisters have been selling their father's old stock for years now. I have heard more than a few stories of dealers trying to get them to sell all their stuff to them, and the response has pretty been the same--"nope, not interested".

 

They used to have a mail order catalog, but the one I had would make you buy 2 or 3 additional items that you probably didn't want. For example, you could buy a USN Navigator wing, but you would also have to buy 2 sweetheart wings, and a bag of buttons.... stuff like that.

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I wasn't aware that Harry S. Wosk sold other variations of the US basic paratrooper wing. The only ones I have ever come across are these sterling marked wings of which I have another photo below of it being packaged in plastic which was part of the Harry S. Wosk surplus stock. I was keeping track of the variations of the WW2 era USN/USMC paratrooper wing that was being sold on eBay from the Harry S. Wosk surplus stock and in doing so also kept photos of the Army basic paratrooper wing they were also selling on eBay.

 

 

 

 

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I know that there were others because I was buying bunches of wings from Donna Wosk years ago. I don't feel that I require any more proof than my word.

If you want to see what a cased AE Company jump wing looks like, you can visit Jessen's Relics website here-

http://www.jessensrelics.com/USA/USA-086v.html I'm too lazy to go dig my example out and shoot photos when they are so easily found on the WWW.

 

Allan

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How much more were they selling the boxed versions?

 

I believe the carded ones sell for $60 if I remember correctly.

 

LF

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When I was buying them, the parachute wings were $25. The AE Company, IIRC, were $40. Now the carded ones sell for $60 and when you can find the AW Co boxed wings they run around $150. The tough thing to do is to find the boxes that haven't had the cellophane removed.

 

Allan

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American Heritage

very interesting information! Thanks so much for explaining the variations. I would like to see other Wosk examples that differ from the nice ones posted by Tonomachi.

 

Has anyone actually seen the Wosk hoard in person?

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American Heritage

I took another pic of the back of the wings to show the STERLING mark. It is slightly raised up and easier to see in these photos.

 

 

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Has anyone actually seen the Wosk hoard in person?

I've seen the Wosk sisters (or at least one or the other), does that count?

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Funny to hear about the Wosk sisters again. I just recently related a story to another collector very similar to the one that Patrick shared. I remember the deals I had to make to get the things I wanted. Patrick's "bag of buttons" story was right on the mark. That's exactly how the crazy deals were. If you really wanted something good you ended up with a trunk full of junk to go along with it and paid a hefty penalty for the opportunity. But I did get some really nice stuff from them early on. I think they're down to mostly just the mainstream stuff now.

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American Heritage

Nice! How much was it boxed? Is it a hollow chute and are there any markings in the back of these wings please?

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