US Army field uniform insignia during Korean War

[Chris Luevano]

Hi.  My name is Chris and I live in Florida.  I served in the Army Signal Corps during the early 70’s with the 1st Armored Division and Fifth Corp, 32nd Signal Battalion.  I do collect some patches and books but I mostly build model kits.

 

For my first post, my question concerns US Army insignia on field uniforms during the Korean War.  A very good friend of mine showed me a picture of his dad during that war and we noticed no insignia of rank or shoulder patches on his uniform shirt(not a field jacket). Not OG 108 shirt either.  Looking through my small collection of Korean War books we found that was not uncommon.  Was that due to a supply and demand situation or were there Army regulations that specified rank or unit patches were not required at the time (1952)?  I have seen Korean War era pictures of Army personnel where rank and unit patches are visible as well.

 

Thanks for any information!

 

Chris

[huntssurplus]

Hey Chris, welcome to the forum!

As for your question, while my knowledge pertains more to WW2 im sure there were similar practices in the Korean War, but simply soldiers wore out field uniforms until they were unwearable. Once they were no longer serviceable they simply threw it away and received a new field uniform (obviously devoid of any sort of insignia) as used that until it was once again worn out. Supply depot's usually ended up with all the discarded uniforms where they either attempted to repair what they could, and throw everything else out. When it came to being in the field, there really wasn't much need for any other insignia or anything besides for officers to have rank. 

 

That's why you don't find common wear of insignia. I also suspect that it was also just too tedious to sew everything on in the field. Not sure if you have ever hand sewn on any insignia on any of your uniforms when you were in the military, but it can be tedious and time consuming to sew everything on all of your uniforms. 

 

Hunt

[Chris Luevano]

Thank you for your information.  I thought that might be the case.  I only had to be concerned about sew on insignia when promoted or PCS and only for the dress uniform, so not very common for me.