2nd Armored Division Hell on Wings Aviaition DI

[Siamundo]

Can anyone provide any definite information on exactly when and who would have worn this? I do not know if the 2nd Armored Division had an Aviation section but that is what I am guessing this is. DI is a really nice looking German made pin back. Thank you for your time.

[Laury Allison]

It is the 502nd Aviation Company.

 

Laury

[Siamundo]

Thank you Laury, I appreciate the information. Woukld you guess this pin is from the late 1950's or early 1960's? Or would you know when Poellath stopped making pin assemblie like this on their DI's?

[Laury Allison]

Thank you Laury, I appreciate the information. Woukld you guess this pin is from the late 1950's or early 1960's? Or would you know when Poellath stopped making pin assemblie like this on their DI's?

 

It is somewhere around the early 60's timeframe. The 2nd Armored Division gyroscoped to Germany somewhere around the 1961-62 timeframe. I can't remember exactly when right of the top of my head. I was just a kid then and in France. I do remember having a booklet (somewhere) of the 2nd Armored Division's gyroscope to Germany. I got it when I was a kid at Fort Hood and Dad was in the 2nd Armored Division (from which he retired in 1972).

 

He did the gyroscope to Germany with the 4th Armored Division in 1958 from Fort Hood....replacing (I believe) the 3rd Armored Division. Dad was at Fort Hood 3 different times during his career...and wore several patches during those times so I have to think about when and where on those. I was around for 2 of those assignments. I can remember him changing from 4th Army to III Corps patches. Then it must have been after his 2nd Vietnam tour bringing home a sack full of 2ns Armored Division patches (with separate "Hell on Wheels" tabs).

That would have been in late 1970 coming out of Vietnam from the 4th ID. I don't think his patches changed anymore after that. I don't remember him ever wearing the 4th ID patch as a combat patch though...I think he left the 9th Infantry Division one on his right shoulder.....It was a hell of a lot tougher tour anyway.

 

When I was younger, Dad wore the 8th Army patch on his right shoulder from his time in Korea. Ive got a picture or him with a 2nd ID patch on his "LEFT" shoulder and I believe 8th Army on his right. He was getting his discharge from the Army.

 

Turned out that Mom bought a '55 Pontiac while Dad was in Korea. When he was discharged from the Army, he couldn't afford the car payment, so he went to reenlist.

 

Dad was chosen to model the "field uniform" before leaving Fort Hood.. I guess it was in the post newspaper. I've got a copy of that picture somwhere.....If I can find it, I'll post it.

 

I had a anyrism in my brain in December 1969 and was medevaced to Brook Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. I can remember lyint in my bed and seeing a soldier coming down the hallway in a Class "A" uniform....it was my Dad. He had flown into San Francisco in jungle fatigues and changed into his class A's in the latrine in the airport. All of his brass had turned green in the couple of months that he had been back in 'Nam. He managed to wipe it off the best he could with paper towels and shave in the Men's Room in the SF airport. When I saw that soldier apper at the end of the hallway...I knew it way my Daddy!!!!

 

I was surrounded by woulded soldiers from Vietnam. Many of them disfigured beyond belief. I won't go into details here, but I will tell you that the majority of them were beyond your worst nightmares. I was on the 3rd Floor of Brook Army Medical Center (BAMC). I was the first kid tp ever be up there (I was 7 1/2 at the time). I was medevac'd at the time from Fort Hood. I remember them bringing me off the helicopter into the pediactrics ward. There was an Army Nurse (I think she was a Major)...who immediately told them to get me the hell out of there!!!! Bless her heart...I wish could find her today as I would love to give her a big hug and a kiss.

 

That is when I was taken to the 3rd Floor of BAMC. I received my surgery a few days later. There are a lot of days that I do not remember, but I do remember having a fever of 113 and is was 17 degrees in San Antonio. They had the widows open, and the medics and nurses were in their field jackets bathing me in alcohol trying to get my fever down.

 

I can remember having to learn to walk again. You think you know how to do it....but mess with your btain and it doesn't necessarity mean you do. I can remember being 7 years old and weighing 17 pounds....I couldn't keep anything down and was fed by IV tubes.

 

I can remember seeing one of the soldiers who was blown apart in Vietnam. On Christmas Eve they took me around the ward to see the soldiers who were there. I think I was therauputic to many of them. If not soldiers...at least thier nurses. This one partcular soldier had no face. limbs, or anything else left. I have thought about that young hero so many times over years and wonderrred how his life turned out.

 

I wish I could see every one of those brave souls again and give them a hug and embrace!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I Salute you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[CaptCav]

OK..... since USAREUR in the 50s is my thing; let me see if I can straighten all this out.

 

The 2AD did NOT Gyroscope to Germany - rather it was an "augmentation", created by bringing 2 RA (2AD, 4ID) and 2 NG divisions (28ID, 43ID) to Germany in 1951, to counter a perceived threat (read: outbreak of the Korean War scared the gazongs offa USAREUR). 2AD arrived in Germany in 6/51. The 2AD remainded in Germany until early 1957, when it was replaced (Gyroscope) by the 4AD. These were NOT re-flaggings - the units actually rotated into and out of USAREUR and CONUS, hence the name Gyroscope. Gyroscope was dropped in 1959.

 

Armored divisions had an Air SECTION, until late 1957. Then under ROCAD (Reorganization Of Current Armored Divisions), the ADs were authorized an aviation company. Thus, 2AD was not authorized an avn co until after they left Germany. I'm not ruling out 502 Avn Co wearing this DI later at Ft Hood; but this is a German-made DI with a very early pin back, so I'm guessing this is a DI for the 2AD Air Section; while the unit was still in Germany (insignia made c1951-'53?). BTW - you often find the same insignia, as a German-made patch. I have a German-made beer stein with this insignia, which is dated 1954.

 

The 3AD DID Gyro to Germany (I made that trip, as a kid). The 3AD replaced the 4ID (in 6/56), when the 4ID went back to the States. The 3AD then remained in USAREUR, and was inactivated in the early 1990s ('94?), after returning from Desert Storm.

 

Whew.

 

If anybody is REALLY into this stuff, go to:

 

usarmygermany.com

 

This fellow has done us all a GREAT service. If you know your units, you can date your German-made stuff to within a year. Some collectors aren't going to like it when they find out their German "theater-made" stuff (ie.... 5ID bullion w/Germany tab; and 43 Inf w/Germany tab) isn't WWII or even early occupation, but rather 1950s (or 1960s) NATO stuff.