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752nd Tank battalion Postwar BOS Insignia


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Here's a question for the experts.... In my collection of 752nd Tank Battalion postwar photos, I noticed that two of the men who I know for sure were in the 752nd Tank Battalion are wearing Cavalry BOS insignia in their formal studio portraits. I have hundreds of postwar vet photos and these are the only two that show 752 postwar men wearing Cav instead of the usual Armored insignia. In these two photos, no 752 or Armored sleeve insignia are apparent.

 

I know the 752nd became organic to the 88th Infantry shortly after the war ended. The tankers still wore their tanker patches after this transition, along with the 752 scroll. I always believed that they kept their Armored BOS insignia, but after seeing these two photos I'm not sure. I know the 752 tankers were forced to replace their green Armored scarves with blue Infantry scarves. But would they also have to stop wearing Armored BOS insignia? And why Cav?

 

So the question is...... When an independent (non-divisional) WWII tank battalion like the 752 became organic to an infantry unit in the postwar period, would they still keep the Armored BOS collar brass? Would an armored unit (still running medium tanks) ever be forced to wear Cav insignia instead of Armored once they were officially a part of an Infantry division?

 

It's probably just a simple matter of the vets being in a Cav unit when the photos were taken, either before or after their assignment to the 752. But it does raise a question about the BOS insignia protocol in a situation where an armored unit was integrated into an infantry division. Can anyone shed any light on this?

 

Many thanks in advance,

 

Bob Holt

752nd Tank Battalion

Historian and Webmaster

The website is back.......

http://www.752tank.com

 

 

 

 

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A good point;

I tend to think they were former Cavalry men.

You see it a lot when men were transferred to other units, that they kept their "former" BOS insignia.

If they had to change this, then they would have worn the infantry BOS insignia (like the blue scarves you mentioned), no?

Just my thought on the subject.

 

Erwin

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Ow btw, if any of the photos you have are named, then you might check the military career of that individual to see if he was (former) Cavalry?

 

Erwin

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Thanks very much, Erwin! That's pretty much what I thought too but I wanted to get another opinion before I just made an assumption. What you are saying makes a lot of sense. I agree about the scarves too. Seems to me that if they had to suddenly wear Cav BOS insignia, then they would suddenly be wearing yellow Cav scarves instead of blue Inf scarves. So I think the Cav BOS brass is just reflecting prior of later service in Cav. BTW, I should have mentioned that I found it curious that in the photos of the men wearing Cav, they are not wearing any campaign of service ribbons and they are not wearing any shoulder insignia at all. Both are 2nd Lieutenants. I suspect they may have been studio portraits that were taken upon graduation from OCS, where they might have initially been assigned to Cav prior to joining the 752 overseas. Not sure on that, just a guess.

 

Yes, I do have the names of both men, and I also have photos of both men wearing Armored BOS brass and 752nd patches. Is there an easy way to check the military career for BOS, other than requesting the DD-214?

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If you are lucky, the NARA record might give a clue.

I had an officer in a TD unit who was in the regular army prior (I think he was Cavalry too).

On NARA I found his service prior to WWII.

 

So if I am correct these 2nd LTs were (1) OCS graduates (Cav BOS), then (2) transferred to 752nd Tk Bn (Armor BOS) and remained with this unit till after WWII when the 752nd became organic to the 88th ID.

So those two photos might have been taken early WWII then? And not postwar?

 

Erwin

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OK, I solved the mystery with AAD. I got lucky because both of their enlistment records show a BOS, and both were indeed Cav initially. They were inducted in 1942 so the photos are early photos taken sometime before they joined the 752. It appears that they spent a ton of time Stateside, given that they are wearing only two overseas stripes in photos from 1946. Many of the 752 combat tankers had racked up 5 or (in a couple of cases) even 6 stripes by the postwar period.

 

The owner of these photos had them listed as being from the postwar period, but that didn't seem right to me. I should have checked the enlistment records first, but I hardly ever see the BOS indicated on the enlistment records so I never thought to do that. Thanks for steering me there!

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When I was in 2/72 Armor in 2001, our scout platoon leader was authorized to wear the crossed sabers. However, you indicated the mystery was solved so my point is moot. Just thought I'd share. Well done on your detective work!

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