A different vets' organization... "Royal Jupoopian Army"

[Garandomatic]

I stumbled upon what may be the most obscure WWII vets' organization out there when checking to see if I could ID an 8th AF man whose jacket I have. Real long shot, but the endeavor was worth a chuckle when I stumbled upon a George Jones from New York. I wanted to see if it was possible that he could be the "GM Jones, Jr." I was looking for, and when I saw that his sponsoring group was the "Jupoopian Veterans," I had to take a look!

 

http://www.wwiimemorial.com/registry/search/pframe.asp?HonoreeID=1715932&popcount=118&tcount=221

 

Apparently, it was just the reunion organization for a small courier unit of only 90 men, founded by Frank Hawkinson. They had a flag made up in India of a cross-eyed eagle and called it the banner of the "Royal Jupoopian Army." I bet those guys were a hoot...

 

Anybody ever hear of them? In the article below, his unit is described as traveling all over the place to hand off parcels to people, including one hand-off in a Scottish pub. I wonder if it was as "cloak and dagger" as it sounds!

 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2007-11-27/news/0711260578_1_lawn-mower-mr-hawkinson-sales-engineer

 

 

[jgawne]

Well, Don't how exclusive that was, but there were also the 'Christmas Island Coconut Heads' for the men who were stationed on the Godforsaken Christmas Island. I suspect there were a great many obscure and now forgotten associations developed during both wars. Kind of sad they fall into the lost and forgotten.