Custom USMC belt

[Jake416]

I’ve posted this leather belt here before but I received the service record for the Marine that owned it. It is named to Eddie D Jack and his basic service involved two stints with the Insular Patrol on Guam in 1921 and 1923-1924. Then he was part of the Legation Guard from ‘24-‘26 and was discharged in June 1926 at Mare Island.

 

After I received his service record I learned his real name was Amedeo di Giacomo and he was born in Molino, Italy. I was trying to see if his service record had anything about him being a dispatch rider or something like that because someone had pointed out to me the belt appears to be a kidney belt that was popular with early motorcycle riders. The grommets on the right side of the belt I assume are for a sidearm. The embossing on the belt reads “Eddie D Jack / Insular Patrol / Of Isles of Guam M. I. 1921.”

 

He was discharged in the summer of 1926 after having only served a year of his 3rd, two-year reenlistment. While in Peking he developed psychoneurosis and was sent back to Mare Island to be evaluated by the doctors at the USNH there. They diagnosed him with the above condition stating the behavior he was exhibiting bordered on psychosis and recommended he be discharged.

 

Two years after he was discharged, in 1928, the Director of Naval Intelligence was looking for his whereabouts but gave no indication as to why in their letter to the Marine Corps. The USMC said that Giacomo only gave a general delivery address of Portland, Oregon at the time of his discharge. Does anyone have any guesses why the NI would’ve been looking for him? Possible fascist?

 

After his time in the Corps he disappears, I can’t find any results on Newspapers for his Marine name or his actual name and the same with Find a Grave. Regardless, an interesting and unique story from a late night eBay find.

[Brig]

Looks a lot like a weightlifting belt... anything in the records about competitive weight lifting?

[Jake416]

Brig, 

 

Nothing in the service record or musters about weight lifting. That’s what I thought too initially but the grommets for a 1910 hanger where a sidearm holster is normally worn makes me think it was worn on duty. After someone here pointed out it looks like a kidney belt, I checked out some other ones online (all Army ones though) I think that makes the most sense. 

[Lightning Tiger]

Great belt!

 

Could it be an early kidney belt that was used for riding motorcycles?

 

https://goldenagemotorcycleclothing.com/kidney-belt/

 

 

 

 

[Jake416]

Tiger,

That’s what I’d put my money on. I’ll have to check out the archives to see if I can see any Marine usage. 

[blitz67]

Wasn’t the insular guard of Guam made up of non military natives and other non military individuals?   Unless he was a military advisor to the guard?   May have been a unit thing they had made up in China or something like that.  I believe it is more or less just a fancy pistol belt.