WWII 82nd Airborne Division major's uniform. Need help on identification!

[Albert_Steiner]

I'm looking at this 82nd Airborne Division major's uniform. The collars show that he was an officer in the 507 Regiment. Ribbons come with the uniform, so he had won a Bronze Star.

The name tag shows this uniform was made on 1944.11.10. The name is H.H.Way, the numbers are 43043, and I think this is a private purchase uniform. 

I did a liitle bit search but found nothing. Do you have any information about this officer? Very much appreciate!

[Allan H.]

I would love to see some close ups on the insignia.

 

Here's what I see, the guy evidently entered service after Pearl Harbor and made a meteoric rise to Major. He has a jacket made in late 1944, so we can assume that he was NOT a POW. We can also assume that since there is a WWII Victory ribbon, that he is staying on active duty by virtual of the fact that the SSI is 82nd A/B and not 17th A/B, The 507th brass is a bit problematic for me as the 507th was inactivated in September 1945.

 

Now, I have NOT been able to find any majors (or captains) named Way in the 82nd or 17th. You would think that aa major would show up readily.

 

I would go back to whomever you purchased the blouse and see if you can find out more. I would also take a good look at the brass and see if it is all wartime.

 

Allan

[Albert_Steiner]

4 hours ago, Allan H. said:

I would love to see some close ups on the insignia.

 

Here's what I see, the guy evidently entered service after Pearl Harbor and made a meteoric rise to Major. He has a jacket made in late 1944, so we can assume that he was NOT a POW. We can also assume that since there is a WWII Victory ribbon, that he is staying on active duty by virtual of the fact that the SSI is 82nd A/B and not 17th A/B, The 507th brass is a bit problematic for me as the 507th was inactivated in September 1945.

 

Now, I have NOT been able to find any majors (or captains) named Way in the 82nd or 17th. You would think that aa major would show up readily.

 

I would go back to whomever you purchased the blouse and see if you can find out more. I would also take a good look at the brass and see if it is all wartime.

 

Allan

Thank you Allan. I'll try to ask more pictures from the seller. I'm wondering is '43043' his service number or just order number of this tunic? If it is his service number, maybe we can use it to identify him?

[Albert_Steiner]

6 hours ago, Allan H. said:

I would love to see some close ups on the insignia.

 

Here's what I see, the guy evidently entered service after Pearl Harbor and made a meteoric rise to Major. He has a jacket made in late 1944, so we can assume that he was NOT a POW. We can also assume that since there is a WWII Victory ribbon, that he is staying on active duty by virtual of the fact that the SSI is 82nd A/B and not 17th A/B, The 507th brass is a bit problematic for me as the 507th was inactivated in September 1945.

 

Now, I have NOT been able to find any majors (or captains) named Way in the 82nd or 17th. You would think that aa major would show up readily.

 

I would go back to whomever you purchased the blouse and see if you can find out more. I would also take a good look at the brass and see if it is all wartime.

 

Allan

Hi Allan, I just confirmed with the seller. The rank and the 507th brass are attached by the seller only for display. I think this Mr. H.H.Way is probably a new recruit officer, or an officer who was been transfered to the 82nd division, or been promoted to a certain rank that he thought he need a new uniform for it. Maybe we can search for a wider range of rank?

 

Best regards.

[Albert_Steiner]

Here are closer pictures of this coat. When the seller bought the coat, it has no rank insignia. Now it has a pair of normal infantary collar tabs.

The seller is not sure if the ribbons belong to H.H.Way, but they were already on the coat when he bought it, and he never touched them.

But one thing is for sure, the insignia of the 82nd Airborne Division and the name tag are originally installed on the coat.

 

 

 

[CNY Militaria]

The fact that the insignia keeps changing and and the seller “not sure” that the ribbons are original To the coat should be enough to steer clear of this item altogether. 

[Albert_Steiner]

3 minutes ago, CNY Militaria said:

The fact that the insignia keeps changing and and the seller “not sure” that the ribbons are original To the coat should be enough to steer clear of this item altogether. 

I think it'll be okay if I could find any information of the original owner of this coat and make sure that Mr. H.H.Way did serve as a part of the 82nd division. Becasue though there are problems with accessories, the coat itself is in good condition, and corresponding to its features is a reasonble low price.

[hink441]

The name “Way” is very close to the famous the 505th Officer named Waverly Wray. 1Lt Wray is one of my personal heroes!!
 

Chris

[Albert_Steiner]

1 minute ago, hink441 said:

The name “Way” is very close to the famous the 505th Officer named Waverly Wray. 
 

Chris

Really? I'll find out about him. 

I know they may use letters to represent the first name and the middle name, but would they abridge the last name?

[hink441]

Read up on Waverly Wray, but I am sure this is not his jacket.  Waverly Wray was killed in action in Sept. 1944. 

[Albert_Steiner]

1 minute ago, hink441 said:

Read up on Waverly Wray, but I am sure this is not his jacket.  Waverly Wray was killed in action in Sept. 1944. 

Yes, I've just found out about this. But thx anyway!

[Albert_Steiner]

I've done some searches, and I found two names, Hartford H Way and Harold H Way, both served in the US Army during WWII, but there is no access for me to learn more about them.

Also, if the number 43043 is Mr.H.H.Way's service number(I don't know how to find out documents about service number), then he should be a graduater of the West Point during 1920s-1930s.

[Bob Hudson]

1 hour ago, Albert_Steiner said:

I found two names, Hartford H Way and Harold H Way,

 

Hartford appears to have served in the Civil War.

[Costa]

also, I have noticed 2 small holes?-- on the pocket flap. what was there? send it back. it was played with.

 

[Albert_Steiner]

19 minutes ago, Bob Hudson said:

 

Hartford appears to have served in the Civil War.

Oh, I see, what I found was his headstone!

[Albert_Steiner]

15 minutes ago, Costa said:

also, I have noticed 2 small holes?-- on the pocket flap. what was there? send it back. it was played with.

 

Those two holes are left by a Combat Infantryman Badge.

[Bob Hudson]

3 minutes ago, Albert_Steiner said:

Oh, I see, what I found was his headstone!

 

I found the headstone application which was pre-WWII and had "CSA" written on it.

 

[Albert_Steiner]

2 minutes ago, Bob Hudson said:

 

I found the headstone application which was pre-WWII and had "CSA" written on it.

 

Ok, then we can get him off the list. 

God it is so hard to search a guy without proper tools. And on other coats, they usually wrote complete First name+Last Name, but this guy didn't. 

[RobS.]

You can eliminate the 508th. I have a complete 3rd anniversary yearbook printed in Frankfurt Germany, October 1945. No "Way" as an officer in that PIR. I looked 3 times to be sure. Perhaps others have a yearbook from the other regiments or division HQ. Don't give up. Pins get taken off and put back on all the time. They could be completely wrong. It is also possible to move down in rank after the war if he stayed in. The way the pocket is monogrammed with his initials suggest a field grade or higher rank. Rob.

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

[T Ambrosini]

Another H. H. Way to scratch off the list....  2Lt Harmer H. Way, Jr. was killed in a fight accident near Maxwell Field in March of 1944, several months preceding the date on the laundry tag.  

[Albert_Steiner]

Thank you so much Ambrosini!

[Albert_Steiner]

4 hours ago, RobS. said:

You can eliminate the 508th. I have a complete 3rd anniversary yearbook printed in Frankfurt Germany, October 1945. No "Way" as an officer in that PIR. I looked 3 times to be sure. Perhaps others have a yearbook from the other regiments or division HQ. Don't give up. Pins get taken off and put back on all the time. They could be completely wrong. It is also possible to move down in rank after the war if he stayed in. The way the pocket is monogrammed with his initials suggest a field grade or higher rank. Rob.

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk
 

Yes, this is a very exquisite custom coat. if this guy's rank is higher than captain, I think it would be field grade, because generals usually have their own wikipedia site? Generals should be easy to indentify.

So now we may scratch off 508th and the 507th, the 507th left the 82nd division and return to the 17th division on 27 August 1944. I think we may first search in other Infantry regiments or the HQ? Assumed that the normal infantry brass was on the coat in the first place(the 507th brass was attached by the seller just for display).

[Kadet]

Honestly, the jacket isn't really "exquisite"...it is  a run of the mill WWII-era officer's uniform from my experience. The initials are a very common touch on tailored uniforms of the era and shouldn't be used to draw a conclusion regarding the rank of the owner.

[KurtA]

Given the shenanigans going on with the metal insignia, what degree of confidence is there that the 82nd patch is original to the jacket?   And, ignoring for a moment that "anything is possible", it's more  the exception than the norm for those low cost embroidered-on-wool overseas bars to be on this type jacket, rather than bullion (no need to send me photos of officer jackets having them).

If I found this at a flea market with the 82nd patch on it, I'd be reasonably confident it was good.  But, coming from a dealer who is acknowledging switching insignia??   Not a jacket I would buy for more than sum of parts.  

 

[Albert_Steiner]

16 minutes ago, KurtA said:

Given the shenanigans going on with the metal insignia, what degree of confidence is there that the 82nd patch is original to the jacket?   And, ignoring for a moment that "anything is possible", it's more  the exception than the norm for those low cost embroidered-on-wool overseas bars to be on this type jacket, rather than bullion (no need to send me photos of officer jackets having them).

If I found this at a flea market with the 82nd patch on it, I'd be reasonably confident it was good.  But, coming from a dealer who is acknowledging switching insignia??   Not a jacket I would buy for more than sum of parts.  

 

Indeed, that’s why I asked about all the details about the name tag and the insignia, I was hoping to confirm other accessories by searching for the name, of the owner’s information can be found, then we will be able to know wether it is good or not. And now, I think I’d better not to buy it.