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Officer Jacket - Engineer Technical Intelligence Team


Baron3-6
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Who says nothing good shows up on ebay anymore? This one was hiding in the vintage clothing section. I'll have to wait until it arrives to see if it is named on the inside, but either way I'm extremely happy to put it with my other Engineer stuff. There were probably less than 100 officer's in the ETO who wore this patch.

 

The Engineer Technical Intelligence Teams were truly the great grand daddy's of the IED-defeat task forces of today's war. They traveled around the battlefield reverse-engineering enemy mines and equipment- then published circulars to train units on them with.

 

The cuff patch is identical to the only other verified ETIT uniform I've seen in person - an ID'd one on an Ike jacket that was (is?) on display in the lobby of the US Army Engineer School at Ft. Leonard Wood. The current assignment patch is 9th Army - the 2889th, 2893rd, 2894th, 2895th, 2902d, 2941st, 2943rd, 2944th, 2945th, 2950th ETIT's all operated under 9th Army and only had 2-3 officers each. I figure just pulling morning reports from those teams and figuring out what part of the country these guys came from might even narrow it down eventually even without a name.

 

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Very Cool find! I learned something new today, thanks for the great history of this interesting unit. Looking forward to hearing if you find more info!

Thanks for posting it.

BKW

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Might be the Rosetta stone I was looking for....now to just figure out who might fit. The jacket has ghosts of LT bars and pin marks to match.

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So if I remember right - the named Ike on display that I saw had a Corps patch for current assignment, which means likely a Combat ETIT like described below. Since this uniform has an Army patch on it - it may be the one Research ETIT that has 3 officers assigned. I think for the 9th Army this might be the 2889th? More to follow.

post-83679-0-70454800-1486967316_thumb.jpg

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So here it is cleaned up (home steamer) with replaced basic pin-on insignia. From the shadows on the uniform I can tell this guy was definitely a Lt. It also looks like one row of three ribbons was present for a long time. I had good luck after I left the seller some good feedback - got confirmed that it came out of a small town and got a potential last name. I figured out one guy who it might be - he served in the Army in WWII (rank unknown) and attended college in the late 1930's. His wife passed away in the same small town last year, so the timing for it having been sold is about right. The name is not on the roster, but officers rotated in and out - and some teams had multiple officers. I've requested this guys file. So, we'll see......

If nothing else, I have a pretty extensive roster of ETIT officers going off the list I posted and another list I found buried on Fold3. Be advised, the roster above has some serious spelling errors from the guys I've tracked down.

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  • 1 month later...

Well after several months of searching and dead ends, persistence paid off. I got the pay card of who I thought was the owner, only to find that he was discharged as a Tec 5! Knowing the town and the last name I went back started to dig some more - I found in the 1930 census that the fellow I thought it was had an older brother still living at home - occupation: rodman on a surveying crew. A likely candidate to become an Engineer officer years later. Sure enough this name yielded a hit on the fold3 records as an Engineer 1LT in charge of the "Mobile Mines and Booby Traps Team" in England prior to D-Day, a group which fell under the ETO Engineer Intelligence section. These teams fell under the same chain of command that the ETIT's did, and he may have later transferred to an ETIT. Either way, it's nice to have this uniform attributed.

 

Here is a single photo I found of the Mobile Mines and Bobby Trap Team in action - teaching a class to soldiers heading to the continent.

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  • 4 months later...

Hi guys, very interesting to see this! I have adopted the name of a lieutenant who served with the 2889th Team. He was killed by a pile of exploding mines. Any idea where I can find documentation? I already have a Ninth Army report which documents the incident. Thanks, Max

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 year later...

Thanks for the bump!

 

I did eventually get what was left of the officer's file. He went overseas in 1942 (hence the high number of overseas bars) with an Aviation Engineer Bn and spent a lot of time building airfields for the Mighty 8th. At some point he was pulled up as a training officer for the Engineer Bridge School and finally the Mobile Mines and Booby Trap Team. His record has a huge gap in 1944-45...and picks up with his discharge orders. I still haven't been able to figure out if he was on an ETIT or just got the patch through his work on the Mobile Training Team. His record stated something the effect of his age (over 30) and lack of education (1 semester of college) precluded him from promotion beyond 1LT. His obit said he was awarded the Purple Heart, unknown how this happened, but possibly mine related? Of course, the gap in his record didn't confirm / deny the wound. He was a long time bachelor and passed away in the mid 1990's, I surmise his brother got the uniform when he passed and it was sold with his estate.

 

Someday I'll have a full story on this really unique uniform.

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Local newspaper articles may have some info on his career. Can try the local library if close by to see if have newspapers in file or the newspaper itself if still in business. Paid source on-line would be Genealogy Bank. com

 

PM me if you want me to look him up. I have a subscription.

 

Frank

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Local newspaper articles may have some info on his career. Can try the local library if close by to see if have newspapers in file or the newspaper itself if still in business. Paid source on-line would be Genealogy Bank. com

 

PM me if you want me to look him up. I have a subscription.

 

Frank

 

Frank - I appreciate the offer! I have hit up everything I can at this point. I did find local newspaper articles about him - but only the obit which told about the PH and one from 1945 saying his Mom was happy to have him home. There is a Box of ETIT unit records at NARA in College Park. Eventually would like to see what's there.

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  • 10 months later...
carbinephalen

Bumping this one as it is one of my favorites! I own a Technical Intelligence Officer uniform from the PTO now! I have a lot of resources if you are interested!

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  • 5 months later...

After reading the writeups, I have a patch to submit for the ETIT.  The first time I saw this patch was on a back cover of an Engineer Technical manual from the Korean War.  This patch I picked up in the early 1990s from the way it was made and I have not seen an Asian made patch since.  I have seen current made patch with a merrowed edge, not cut.  Comments????

 

Larry

Eng Tech Intel Team-F.jpg

Eng Tech Intel Team-R.jpg

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  • 1 year later...

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