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Army Transport Service, Etc Insignia


KurtA
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Per Gary's request, pictured is an accumulation of various insignia related to the Army Transport Command and Military Sealift Cmd (and anything similar) that I've found at shows and Ebay over the years. It always seems to sell for a reasonable price when I find it, as it doesn't appear to be widely collected.

Kurt

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Per Gary's request, pictured is an accumulation of various insignia related to the Army Transport Command and Military Sealift Cmd (and anything similar) that I've found at shows and Ebay over the years. It always seems to sell for a reasonable price when I find it, as it doesn't appear to be widely collected.

Kurt

 

Kurt: Outstanding collection! I never get tired of looking at it, especially the war time ATS insignia. If you ever get tired of looking at your Army Transport Service stuff, you know who to call. :)

 

Here is a grouping of insignia, all to the same man from his service during WWII. So far, all I have is his name and hometown, which was Joe Clark from Odessa, TX. I hope to one day get his records or more information on him, but so far, have drawn zilch, nada, blank from NPRC with a couple of requests. He was Army, so I'm assuming his records would be at NPRC. Anyone know differently?

Gary

 

His hat and cap emblems. The large metal emblem was made by Vanguard. The small overseas cap emblem is simply marked sterling.

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His ATS Lieutenant boards. This would have made him an Army Captain.

 

Notice the US Navy buttons and bullion embroidered Army Transportation branch insignia. The boards were also made by Vanguard with the Vanguard hallmark within the large V for Victory war time Vanguard logo.

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Some of his various collar and chest insignia.

 

The sterling and 1/20th G.F. Army Transportation collar devices were made and are hallmarked to Vanguard as are the Yeoman devices. Vanguard is usually associated with the manufacture of USN and USMC insignia during WWII, so it is interesting and kind of neat that they also supplied Army insignia.

 

Here is the tricky part of this grouping? MM service pins, buttons and also MM campaign ribbons. They were definitely part of Mr. Clarks grouping, so it has me scratching my head as to why an Army CPT in the ATS would be entitled to MM awards. Does anyone know or have the regulations pertaining to these MM awards to Army personnel?

Gary

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Military Sealift Command and Military Sea Transport Service.

 

Kurt: I noticed a remarkable resemblance between your MSTS visor device eagles and those of the M1955 USMC emblem. Are those two emblems hallmarked in any way?

Gary

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Army Transport Service personal were not in of the Army, they were civilians working for the Army. They were merchant seamen that signed onto an Army ship, when their contract was up they could sign onto any merchant ship which is why one man could have both ATS insignia and Merchant Marine insignia and ribbons. Try tracing him through the Merchant Marine, all merchant seamen have to be licensed but I don't know if the records are open to the public but it would be worth looking into.

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Kurt: I noticed a remarkable resemblance between your MSTS visor device eagles and those of the M1955 USMC emblem. Are those two emblems hallmarked in any way?

Gary

 

Gary-

No, they're not hallmarked.

Kurt

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His ATS Lieutenant boards. This would have made him an Army Captain.

 

Notice the US Navy buttons and bullion embroidered Army Transportation branch insignia. The boards were also made by Vanguard with the Vanguard hallmark within the large V for Victory war time Vanguard logo.

 

Gary-

Nice shoulder boards. Those are really scarce. I never see them around.

Kurt

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Army Transport Service personal were not in of the Army, they were civilians working for the Army. They were merchant seamen that signed onto an Army ship, when their contract was up they could sign onto any merchant ship which is why one man could have both ATS insignia and Merchant Marine insignia and ribbons. Try tracing him through the Merchant Marine, all merchant seamen have to be licensed but I don't know if the records are open to the public but it would be worth looking into.

 

Thanks for this valuable information. Everything I've been able to find and read about ATS personnel during WWII insinuates that they were Army, not contract civilians. Guess I've been way off and searching for his service records in the wrong place. Do you know where MM records are kept? I can't recall ever seeing any reference to those records within NPRC.

Gary

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Gary-

Nice shoulder boards. Those are really scarce. I never see them around.

Kurt

 

Thanks, Kurt! I was happy to see them with the rest of his stuff. With the Army branch devices and Navy buttons, they are unusual. I've also seen photos of ATS boards with MM buttons, so it would seem that ATS insignia wasn't all that uniform to a certain branch.

Gary

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Looks like what my friend Rudy Basurto has in his several books on maritime and ATS insignia, drew some of the pictures he has, loads of fun to do and still have original pen and ink drawings that aren 400% larger than actual size, no one seems to collect original artwork even though I offered it free to the first who'd ask for it? I have loads of great colour photos too like those here, great stuff it is, isn't it? Much of this I put on CD disks after scanning it in, wonder if anyone trades their CDs for mine? I sell nothing! I either trade or give away, don't wish to compete and hurt the business of serious dealers and eBay sellers, would not be fair to them, would it now! Sarge Booker of Tujunga, California (Oddly enough I have the uniform regulations back to 1898 up to 1945)

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  • 4 years later...
senhoragua

I have been steadily collecting and analyzing Army Transport Service insignia. I have a couple of posts here:

 

U.S. Army Transportation Corps, Water Division

U.S. Army Transportation Corps, Water Division ship's officer

 

With some images of hat badges, shoulder boards and collar insignia of the ATS post-reorganization into the TC.

 

Here're a few of my favorites:

 

Gemsco badge with painted shield

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TC-WD, 3rd Officer shoulder boards

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TC-WD master collar insignia in NS Meyer box

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  • 3 years later...

I have this Military Sealift Command jr officer hat. Named but I don't know the date. Tonelli shows a picture of an identical one and describes it as circa 1950.

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I collect ATS as it once was a part of the Quartermaster Department. Here are some hats and my insignia collection. Also, if anyone is looking for a history of the ATS from the Spanish-American War through the fall of the Philippines, this may help: http://www.amazon.com/Over-Seas-Maritime-Operations-Philippines/dp/0960899669/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429399450&sr=8-1&keywords=over+seas+army+transport+book.

 

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I collect ATS as it once was a part of the Quartermaster Department. Here are some hats and my insignia collection. Also, if anyone is looking for a history of the ATS from the Spanish-American War through the fall of the Philippines, this may help:

 

 

 

Excellent collection you have there!

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Gentlemen,

 

Great material on the ATC. Attached is an image of a hat device that has me stumped that I hope you might be able to help me with. I can't find no reference to this design, though similar to the ATC. It is a pre WWII hat badge made by Zamora in the Philippines acquired out of a collection in Manila.

 

I would appreciate your thoughts.

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Gentlemen,

 

Great material on the ATC. Attached is an image of a hat device that has me stumped that I hope you might be able to help me with. I can't find no reference to this design, though similar to the ATC. It is a pre WWII hat badge made by Zamora in the Philippines acquired out of a collection in Manila.

 

I would appreciate your thoughts.

 

It appears to be a US Merchant Marine officer's hat badge that is missing the gold anchor on the shield. Very nice being made by Zamora. If I owned your badge, I'd restore it with the anchor off of a US-made badge, as those are of rather low value.

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Kurt. Thanks for your reply..what has thrown me off and may not come across well in this low resolution image is that where there would be the anchor, there are a pair of crossed rifles. They are original to the hat shield. Over my research, I have not been able to id this variant. Thoughts? J

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