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Uniform of Cpt. Joseph Hillman, L. Co., 145th IR


2ndInf.Div.
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I have posted this uniform before, but was able to ID it and thought I would share this veterans story.

 

About 4-5 years ago, I acquired a ribbon and insignia group that belonged to an unknown officer of the 145th Infantry Regiment; it had been stripped from his mothed officers jacket. I am very happy to say that through tedious research, I was able to identify it as belonging to Captain Joseph Hillman, who served with L. Company.

 

My first step to researching this uniform was to pull the 145ths officer roster from the National Archives. From there, I went through every name of the roster while also looking through the 37th IDs General Order book; Hillman was the only 145th officer that had a SS and PH without clusters. I was then able to have his citations pulled from the archives, and he was listed as being wounded on March 19, 1944 during the battle of Hill 700 at Bougainville. After that, I went through the morning reports and was able to find his company. Subsequently, I also found an account from the Mt. Pacawagan campaign in April and May of 1945 that also mentioned him. Going into this, I knew that this officer had to have been with the 3rd Battalion for the simple fact that the Asiatic-Pacific ribbon has an arrowhead for the Lingayen Gulf Landing on January 9, 1945. The 145ths 1st and 2nd Battalions were held in reserve while the 3rd Battalion landed in support of the 544th Boat and Shore Regiment.

 

About a year or two ago, prior to finding out who the group belonged to, I purchased a nice original 37th officers coat with no ID or ribbons, and matched the two together. I think they go together quite well.

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Captainofthe7th

Nice, Matt! I was just thinking about this one the other day, wondering how you were doing with the project. I'm glad you found a match...nice job.

 

Rob

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So...to clarify...are you saying that the uniform coat was not his, but you put his ribbons and insignia on it....or did both the coat and insignia originally belong to him?

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Yes, the jacket was not his, but the ribbons, DIs, and other metal insignia is. The overseas bars and 37th patch are original to the jacket, but the jacket itself has no provenance. Hillman also had 4 overseas bars, so I thought they made a perfect match.

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