Father / son group. 1st Div. WWI & 11th Airborne WWII

[Uniforms of the Day]

This is a neat little group I acquired today, from the daughter/granddaughter of the owners. Her father was John Nalore, who served woth the 11th Airborne Div. and the 27th in WWII and early Japanese Occupation. I have not had a chance to research him yet. But he made the rank of staff sergeant. There are two soft, visored fatigue caps here. The OD one just has an "AIRBONE" tab sewn on it. The khaki one has an Airborne Infantry cap patch on it. Kinda cool. His ike, an OD uniform, and a khaki shirt are here along with misc patches, ribbons, etc. The granddaughter thinks her dad was in the Rochester NY area during the war.  The grandfather was Samuel Nalore. I have his jacket and trousers. The jacket has an 8th Cavalry, Troop H disk. I have a copy of his discharge, some of which is hard to read. But it mentions Ammunition Train, (Cavalry) Regular Army Reserve, and later Co. E 1st Am. Trn., which was a 1st Division unit in WWI. The 1st Division patch is a great German made example. Lastly, her grandmother's first husband, on her mother's side, came to America from Italy. He served with the Italian forces in WWI. His three medals and what appears to be a LA chapter Italian Combat Veteran's Association cap are also here. Anyway, a fun little group. I hope I can find more about her dad, John, the 11th Airborne vet.

[Uniforms of the Day]

Just a couple online docs I located regarding Samuel

[Allan H.]

The two soft caps are called "Swing Caps" and are named after the 11th Airborne Division Commander Joseph "Joe" Swing. They are highly collectible.

 

The 1st Division SSI on the WWI tunic is rather unusual. I have never seen a WWI example on dark green wool. The 8th Cavalry collar disk is also quite odd as the 8th Cavalry was in the Philippines from well before WWI until about 1921. At no time was it ever assigned to the 1st Division. I don't think that it is a fake or anything, just think the combination is really unusual.

 

Great pick-ups.

 

Allan

[Uniforms of the Day]

Yes Allan. It is interesting. He enlisted in 1916. The discharge document actually mentions that he was in the Ammunition Train (Cavalry) at one point. It also states that his horsemanship was excellent. And then it appears he ended up with the 1st Ammunition Train, a 1st Division unit. Why he has that disk on the 1st patched jacket I'm not sure. But it's kind of cool. The patch color is very similar to, and may be German uniform fabric. I have seen that a few times over the years. 

[Allan H.]

41 minutes ago, Uniforms of the Day said:

Yes Allan. It is interesting. He enlisted in 1916. The discharge document actually mentions that he was in the Ammunition Train (Cavalry) at one point. It also states that his horsemanship was excellent. And then it appears he ended up with the 1st Ammunition Train, a 1st Division unit. Why he has that disk on the 1st patched jacket I'm not sure. But it's kind of cool. The patch color is very similar to, and may be German uniform fabric. I have seen that a few times over the years. 

Based on what you're telling us, I would assume that he was wrangling horses for the 1st Ammunition Train. The 5th, 6th, and 7th Field Artillery Regiments all used horses or mules to pull artillery pieces and caissons. I'd assume that he wanted to wear cavalry brass since he was working with horses, though officially, we would either be wearing a "T" disk for Trains, or a field artillery disk since they were mainly hauling ammo to feed the guns. 

 

I don't disagree that the green wool could be German, but it almost has a USMC hue to my eye.

 

Allan

[Timberwolf]

Great group! Any idea on what unit the 11th AB soldier was with?

[Uniforms of the Day]

I wish I did Timberwolf. But I have not been able to attempt researching him yet.

[Uniforms of the Day]

By the way Allan, thanks for the info on the "swing caps". I had never heard that before. Great info!

[Uniforms of the Day]

I just found out that the Italian veteran, and family member, was Giulio De Santis. He lived in the City Terrace area of Los Angeles.