Fantastic Patches Named With No Info On Unit, OSS Connection?

[Bill Scott]

I bought these patches last week from another dealer who was kind enough to sell them to me.The man whos estate these came out of was stationed in Kandy Ceylon and according to one of  his V mails was  with the 5322nd Headquarters and Headquarters Company.The OSS Detachment 404 was there but I do not find him on the OSS Roster.After the War in 1951 he went to work for the CIA.His name was Robert W. Ruggles and all he would tell his relatives was that he Blew Up a lot of stuff during the war.The Leather patch is five and one quarter inches and the other two shoulder sleeve size.As every one knows I have owned some Rare insignia and when I have not seen it or handled it you know it's rare.I have never heard of a the South East Asia Command Commando unit but here proof that on existed.I thought you might like to see another Rare piece of WW2 patch history.Scotty

[Tonomachi]

The only time I've come across this SSI minus the commando tab that had an association with the OSS was a British SOE unit called the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA).  This unit was supposedly made up of Anglo, Chinese, Chinese Canadians, Malays and Indian personnel.  Supposedly there were a few Americans from the OSS that was part of this group.  The MPAJA was actually a Communist fighting force that refused to wear this SSI or their brass beret badge due to it being an emblem of an imperialistic force.  More recent information indicates that the SOE side of this unit was actually called the Malay Section "Group B" Force 136 and not the MPAJA which were purely a Communist Organization.  So maybe the reason why Robert W. Ruggles is not on the OSS personnel list is because he was part of the SOE and after the war immigrated to the US.  Great find as always.

 

 

[Bill Scott]

He might have been attached to them but he was from East Clevleand Ohio and was a US citizen.This guy is really a mystery and you are right the first things I found were Detachment 404 or Force 136.Thank You for your time and research as always.Scotty

[BILL THE PATCH]

I love new finds, especially after 75 years there still turning up. Remarkable. 

[saarf]

DA Pamphlet 672-1: Unit Citation and Campaign Participation Credit Register, does not specifically list a 5322nd Headquarters & Headquarters Company but it does list “5320th Air Defense Wing, Headquarters and Headquarters Company,” which received credit for the India-Burma Campaign. Elsewhere, in a Wikipedia entry: “In June 1943, following small, sporadic raids during the dry season, the entire fighter strength of the India Air Task Force, amounting to less than 100 P-40s, was organized as the Assam American Air Base Command (later the 5320th Air Defense Wing, Provisional), specifically to protect the Assam airfields.”

 

The circular patch has the distinctive phoenix of the SE Asia Command, which after April 1944 was headquartered in Kandy, Ceylon. Am I alone in feeling it has the look of an aviation jacket patch?

 

NARA’s WWII Enlistment database lists two men named Robert W. Ruggles, one of whom (ASN 15360049), was born in 1923, enlisted in 1942 in Akron, Ohio, and resided in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. He does not appear in the Social Security Death Index; neither have I found an obituary or memorial for him.

[Bill Scott]

That is his serial number and the leather SEAC patch is flight jacket size.I put the info on the facebook page and one of the other guys came up with another guys obituary that said he was in Kandy Ceylon also in the 5322 HQ and HQ Company.I think it had to be a unit but what did they do and why a commando tab over the shoulder patchA real mystery.

[saarf]

I looked at some genealogical records and found his exact DOB (3/23/1923) and his parents’ names. Using that, I was able to find a memorial to his father, Charles L. Ruggles, on the website Find-A-Grave (link follows). You will see at the bottom of the memorial links to memorials of the father’s deceased children, but son Robert is not listed (he is mentioned in the information provided in his father’s bio). As I said, Robert does not appear in the Social Security Death Index, which could mean he died fairly recently, or, of course, that he is still living. This sheds no light on the patch, but it gives an old codger like me something to do.

 

Charles L. Ruggles

[Bill Scott]

He is dead and his shirt tail relatives got his estate which is where the insignia came from.Here is a copy of his 1951 letter from the CIA hiring him.Scotty

[saarf]

Have you considered a connection to the 1st Air Commando Group?

[walika]

A Draft Card shows Robert Williston Ruggles, born 23 Mar 1923, Cleveland Heights, OH. Father Charles L. Ruggles.

 

He married in Fairbanks, AK 1 Dec 1959 while a student at the University of Alaska. This was his second marriage (2nd wife a nurse) with his divorce in Cleveland, OH 22 Jun 1954.

 

A Dr. Robert W Ruggles, born 23 Mar 1923, was residing in Oroville, CA in 1990s. He is not listed in the California Death Index which ends in 1997. "Dr. Bob", if this is our guy, died 28 May 2018, age 95. He earned four degrees and sailed around the world in a boat be built. Obit here offers no clues to military service.

[walika]

Presumably, the obit Bill mentions (Post #6) posted elsewhere was for Ralph D. Johnson (1921-2017).  ". . .He entered the Army and served in the 5322 Headquarters Company Southeast Asia Command stationed in Kandy, Ceylon from July 1942 to February 1946." Born 6 Aug 1921 at Casselton, ND. Enlisted as Ralph Douglas Johnson while residing in Long Beach, CA.
 

I found another obit:

Edward Eugene Aylward 15 Feb 1924-8 Jul 2017:

 

". . .He served around the world, but mainly in the China-Burma-India Theater with the 3115th Signal Service Battalion in the 5322nd Headquarters Company under the command of Gen. Joe Stilwell and attached to the Southeast Asia Command (SEAC) British Army-Navy Headquarter of Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten in India and Ceylon (now Sri-Lanka). . ."

 

This led me to do some further research, where I found that Ceylon was the site of all Detachment 404 bases and facilities except the R&A and X-2 operations. From Colombo, the OSS trainees were taken by truck to Galle, an old Portuguese colonial city on the southwest coast of Ceylon. Galle was the home of Detachment 404’s OGs. These OGs were reorganized in the winter of 1944–1945, and the bulk of the operators transferred to Detachment 202 in China.

 

Edward Aylward's service there in the 3115 Signal Service Battalion combined with the size of the OSS operation based there indicates it might have had significant support elements.

 

88th Army Air Force Base Unit (4th AACS Wing), in Calcutta, had elements of two squadrons at Kandy, Ceylon.

125th Army Airways Communication System Squadron Det Station #154

129th Army Airways Communication System Squadron Det Station #541 (Hq, 1st Tactical Group, Army Airways Communication System)

 

Incidentally, the 1st and 2nd Air Commando Groups were based in India.

[walika]

Other elements in Ceylon:

 

1310th AAF Base Unit (India-China Division, ATC) Colombo, Ceylon

 

OSS had a mission at Kandy, Ceylon and a sub-mission at Galle, Ceylon.

 

Site Y, a separate OSS facility training indigenous agent recruits, was at Trimcomolee, Ceylon

[saarf]

I have a 29-page roster of OSS India-Burma personnel dated 1 April 1945 from NARA, courtesy of John Brunner, that includes, among others, personnel from Detachments 101 and 404, and Ruggles is not on it. Neither is he on NARA's master OSS Personnel Index. 

[Bill Scott]

No one said he was 101 or 404 it is possible he could be 1st Air Commando that is what we are trying to figure out.What ever he was he had some neat insignia.Scotty

[VB21]

This obit mentions that the deceased (Charles Goodin) "was a member of OSS 5322nd HQ & HQ Co." But Goodin is not listed in the OSS Roster.

 

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/dispatch/name/charles-goodin-obituary?pid=140509157

[Bill Scott]

VB-21 neat information the quest goes on.Thanks to all for your work so far.Scotty

[walika]

More tidbits:

 

Order of Battle:

8 Feb 45:  Hq OSS IBT org at Kandy, Ceylon, as subordinate comd of Hq USF IBT.

 

U. S. Army Circular No. 78 | 4 Aug 1944

 

Headquarters U. S. Army CBI

 

I. Visits to Ceylon

Personnel intending to visit Ceylon on official business will contact the Commanding General, 5322nd United States Army Section (Prov) A.P.O. 432 prior to departure - so that accommodation may be arranged.

 

[VB21]

Scotty, check this out.  Steve

 

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/scarce-5322nd-us-army-sec-sea-cmd-cbi-ceylon

[saarf]

The circular, leather jacket patch is essentially a copy of the first design of SEAC’s SSI, which was circular and on which the phoenix faces to the viewer’s right. This SSI, according to Shoulder Sleeve Insignia of the U.S. Armed Forces 1941-1945 by Smith and Pelz, was approved on 25 October 1943. This design was somewhat unusual as the phoenix would be facing to the rear when the SSI was worn on the left sleeve, as it would have been by US personnel. Ten months after the first SSI design was approved, a second version was approved, differing only in the phoenix facing left, as it is on the SSI with COMMANDOS tab shown here. The tab is especially interesting, as commando was a designation used far more frequently by the British military than by the American. SEAC was a joint American-British Command, so the unit to which the patch refers could have been British. But when the British used that term on insignia, it was generally singular, COMMANDO, and the direction the phoenix is facing is more suitable to left sleeve wear. There’s no doubt a story behind this SSI; one that Ruggles may have taken with him.

[mortaydc60]

Thought it maybe of interest to show what the Force 136 badge looks like. Hope I won’t ruffle any feathers here since it is not US but British but apparently there has been much overlapping between units 

[walika]

I wanted to bring this thread up again to see of anyone might have run across additional information or insights.