Two wings, one invasion arrowhead with oval the other combat star

[akriener]

Sorry for limited photos, but this is all that's provided. Was wondering if anyone could provide some thoughts on these.

 

The invasion one seems very "new". Maybe the arrowhead was moved to a newer wing. Not sure on the oval, seems kinda thick/new. 505th?

 

Not sure what to think on the second one. 

 

Appreciate comments!

 

 

[akriener]

I guess I should say what are the odds these are WWII era wings. I know invasion arrowheads and jump stars were issued for later conflicts as well.

[Blacksmith]

What are the odds?  50:50?

 

without pics of the backs, it’s roughly equivalent to getting a haircut by telephone. 

[pconrad02]

The problem with these types of wings is anyone with a WWII ribbon bar to source the add ons and a drill can make one. I would never pay a premium for jump wings with stars without provenance.  Particularly not a clutch back. 

[akriener]

1 minute ago, pconrad02 said:

The problem with these types of wings is anyone with a WWII ribbon bar to source the add ons and a drill can make one. I would never pay a premium for jump wings with stars without provenance.  Particularly not a clutch back. 

 

I'll try and get some photos of the back. I don't have any WWII era clutch back wings, but I believe those are not the correct backings. They are supposed to be solid coverings, corect?

[pconrad02]

8 minutes ago, akriener said:

 

I'll try and get some photos of the back. I don't have any WWII era clutch back wings, but I believe those are not the correct backings. They are supposed to be solid coverings, corect?

Yes

[Blacksmith]

21 minutes ago, pconrad02 said:

The problem with these types of wings is anyone with a WWII ribbon bar to source the add ons and a drill can make one. I would never pay a premium for jump wings with stars without provenance.  Particularly not a clutch back. 

I agree 100% with Paul.  By way of example, here is a pair that I made, exactly how he described.  There was a local 508PIR member, who - while at Normandy for the 70th anniversary - gave a pair of his jump wings to a French boy he’d met.  He was wearing two pair of wings, one on his hat, and one on his M42 jacket.  In all of the hustle and bustle, he took the pair off of his hat, handed them to the boy, and continued on his way.  When he got home to the US, he realized he gave his original wings away - the ones he wore during WWII, and had his devices on them (two campaign stars, and one arrowhead).  He thought the ones on his hat were a plain pair, without the devices, but got them switched at some point.  While he was the most generous man you’d ever meet, he was forlorn that he’d given the wrong ones away.  While I couldn’t obviously get his originals back, he had a picture of him wearing them, and I knew right away that I was going to make a replacement pair for him.  So, I cannibalized the devices I needed off of old junk ribbons, and made these and dropped them off at his house.  Now, I used a later clutch-back pair (non-sterling), so nobody could mistake them as “originals”.  I also used some fine sandpaper and emory cloth, to knock some of the finish off of the high points of the stars and arrowhead (fake wear).   If I had used a pair of sterling pin-backs, I’m not sure how you would tell.

[Allan H.]

I've handled a couple of WWII jump wings over the years and can tell you not to spend a whole lot on either of the wings in the original post. As has been previously surmised, the 505th AIR oval is also post WWII.

 

Allan