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THE BROTHERS KOSS from Chicago


TBMflyer
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This past week I was lucky enough to obtain the WWII memorabilia of two brothers from Chicago.

The Koss brothers, Frank and Joseph both served overseas in the ETO. Frank was a T/5 with A Co. 22nd Armored Engineers, 5th Armored Division.

Joe was a Sergeant-Air Gunner in the 15th Air Force, group as yet unknown.

 

Frank’s grouping consists of the following; Ike Jacket, shirt, pants and o/s hat with Armor piping,

Cased Bronze Star medal with G.O., all his boxed campaign medals, booklet, books, dog tags, bracelet, rosary, 4-5th Armored SSI’s.

There was also the group of 4-5th armored maps showing routes and campaigns, an S-2 map of Europe and 10 maps from the Tennessee Maneuvers.

 

Joe’s lot has; Ike jacket with wings and ribbons, pants, o/s and peaked hats, shirt, dog tags, Air Medal boxed, Italian-made ribbon bar,

boxes for his campaign medals, and a neat flare gun.

 

I was fortunate enough to get all of this from his nephew Tom, and will keep it all together.

Tom has the A company yard long photo, some family photos and letters which I will get scans of,

and perhaps some more as he goes thru boxes at his uncle’s.

 

I will start with Frank as there is more of his stuff.

Enjoy, Mark

 

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Now that is really neat. Congrats on being able to keep the history and memory of these two brothers together and alive!

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Brian Dentino

Wow. Very nice indeed! I love to see these family grouping together! I know of a person locally that has at least one of these brother groupings and I just love to look at it. This is a truly great addition and something that hopefully will stay together for a long time to come! Congrats on the great score.... thumbsup.gif

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Thanks for the kind words. I could never even think of splitting up these items, they will stay together in my collection.

I have some research to do finding what unit Joe was with, I'm hoping the letters that are still around might give me an APO or group identity.

Here are a couple more things I have, the pillow sham is from Pine Camp, NY and I thought it neat that Frank had two different styles of dog tag on his chain, a next of kin and a later one. Mark

 

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Yes he was. Thanks to Paul's help, I was able to find out that Joe was a gunner with the 779th BS, 464th BG, 55th BW, a B-24 outfit. I now have a starting point to do more research on him and his crew. Mark

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I concur... very, very nice. Proud to see a Chicago family's grouping all together (I'm originally from Chi-town). And to receive not only the uniforms but the papers, the medals, and other items is inspiring. I'm sure many of us dream to have a grouping like that. Congratulations!

~Rabbit

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  • 2 weeks later...

Had the good fortune to get some more items of the Koss brothers, including the uniform of Sgt. John Koss, USAAF. John was an instructor here in the States. I also picked up 2 sleeping bags, a B-2 gunner hat, several bullets, ties and other items. Tom still has the photos which I will post as soon as they are available, along with the research I'm still doing. Having the uniforms of 3 brothers is now one of the neatest things in my collection, enjoy, Mark

 

First is the uniform, hat and overcoat of John Koss- I did add the collar brass. post-527-1241139657.jpgpost-527-1241139666.jpg

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Last one for now, the B-2 'gunners' cap, I'm pretty sure this was Joe Koss' but there is no name or number so I don't know for sure. It is pretty beat up but it was 'there'. post-527-1241139969.jpg

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Well since no one will comment on this posting ( typical of the forum these days), glad to see that you got the other Koss borther's uniform. It is a truely awesome grouping..Paul

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Mark,

Congrats on the grand slam thumbsup.gifthumbsup.gif ...3 uniforms from one family.Pretty amazing to have all three uniforms(and all the other items) survive all these years.Are you going to send off for the files from NARA???

 

RD

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Thanks Paul and Ron. I'm going to wait until I get all the copies and paperwork from the family, I know there are discharges and a bunch of letters and photos, when everything is together, I might make the NARA request.

Mark

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  • 11 years later...

Bringing this one out of archives since I finally got a photo of the three brothers. This picture was taken in Nov. of 1943 before Joe and Frank headed overseas. You can see the 5th Armored patch on Franks shoulder. Still one of my favorite family groups.

Enjoy,

Mark

Koss Brothers.jpeg

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Allan, I actually have the uniforms for all three of the brothers, John was an instructor stateside-found his wings in the pocket. I'll shoot a 'family photo' of the three uniforms tomorrow.

Katieony, thanks, this one is great because it shows one family's sacrifices during the war.

Mark

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