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50th Signal Battalion DUI


sprite63
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My father served with the 50th Sig BN in Sendai Japan between 1952-53 and I have been looking for the unit crests from that period. Can't remember exactly what they looked like but know they were different than the ones I've found on ebay. Can anyone point me to a reference source or provide a picture of the crest from that period? Would like to obtain one for my collection.

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This is the sheet from The Institute of Heraldry or as it's better know on this forum TIOH. Note the official date of adoption 4 May 1954 of the DI depicted and posted below, this means that any DI worn by the 50th Signal Bn prior to this would be an unofficial one. This was common in the late WWII early 50s, unit just adopted DIs for their units with out official sanction, sanction only being on the local or unit level. Sometimes, but not all the time, certain features, like symbolism's, or motto's etc of the unofficial DIs were incorporated into the officially adopted DI.

 

post-34986-0-19349000-1427600911.jpg

http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/Catalog/HeraldryMulti.aspx?CategoryId=4276&grp=2&menu=Uniformed%20Services

 

So far I can't find another DI for the unit, but as you say, I betting there was another one, an unofficial one. Do you have fotos of him, or are you just going by memory what they looked like

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Going by memory, but thats not it. I find this posted here, and this may be it, but I seem to remember a diagonal bar instead of a lightning bolt with several telephone poles instead of stars

post-11320-0-04698400-1407691053.jpg

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Going by memory, but thats not it. I find this posted here, and this may be it, but I seem to remember a diagonal bar instead of a lightning bolt with several telephone poles instead of stars

post-11320-0-04698400-1407691053.jpg

Well these are your typical unauthorized DIs, probably date from the very late war period, note that pointy device on the very top, I recognized that right away, it's the main symbol of the Iceland Base Command, during WWII from around early 1942, like January 1942 till around December 1943 or so, it was on Iceland. But in the case of the DIs the colors are reversed from the shoulder patch. The wreath on the bottom represents a Meritorious Unit Commendation the battalion received in WWII streamer embroidered EUROPEAN THEATER.

 

post-34986-0-81752800-1427653692.jpg

 

 

Can't say much about the different symbols you say might of been on the early 50s one, it may be these ones you found and posted may be the immediate post war occupation period ones, from Germany, and that the ones you recall may have been redesigned a bit as the 40s wore on, then came the officially adopted ones in towards the mid 50s, so these older ones would of been duffel-ed for keep sakes, discarded etc.

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