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Maj. Thomas D. Purvis


776thamtrac
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776thamtrac

Hey guys,

Just thought I would post something a little newer for something different than I usually do. The great uniform lot belonged to Maj. Thomas Purvis of Indiana. His service dates back to 1958 as an enlistedman. In 1962 he went to Artillery OCS and by 1966 he was at Bien Hoa with II Field Force as an FO. He stayed in the regular Army several years then went to the Ready Reserve with 95th MTC. I don't collect much US Army Vietnam items but of those I have this is a complete one that I really enjoy. This was the first time I had run across one of these Vietnam printed garment bags as well.

CJW

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CNY Militaria

Thats a nice lot! If you don't want it...

 

I also have that same Vietnam garment bag. I have seen them come up from time to time, and I am guessing it was some kind of novelty item.

 

Justin

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776thamtrac

haha I think I could finish that sentence for you pal....butttttt not quite yet. Maybe one of these days I'll pass it your way thumbsup.gif I really wish that garment bag were in better shape. He obviously overpacked it too many times (like my wife does on vacation uggg) because the shoulders are split. I too assume it was one of those novelty items. I had to do some serious work to get all his insignia back from the seller on this one. He of course had split the insignia up and sold it some time before. After lots of prodding I got the name of the buyer and bought it all back. I was very pelased to see his NARA records and see that I got everything that was supposed to be there. This lot also included seven more khaki shirts with the 95th patch, and five of the newer type with the shoulder boards.

CJW

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CNY Militaria

Thats good you were able to save this group from being split up. That happens all too often as you know. Replacing the insignia with anything other that his originals is just not gratifying enough. Its interesting how he wore the patch on his pockets, as I don't think that was a common practice except for certain units.

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776thamtrac

How right you are. Had I not had the the original items back on this uniform it would have been just another put together in my opinion, and well you know how I feel about those. But anyway you're right on the pocket patch. It seems to me that this was done early on in the history of the 95th as a Training Division in the mid 70's. After that they were worn on the left shoulder of the blouse. Perhaps in those early years they wore their Army Group patch on their left shoulder?

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SSIs were not worn on the short sleeve khaki shirt. It was common practice to wear the unit patch as a pocket hanger in Viet Nam, he probably got the idea to wear it as a pocket patch there.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Always a real pleasure to search and find items from a sprayed grouping!

Well done!

I found this:

Name: PURVIS THOMAS D

Branch: ARMY

Rate: O03

Rank: CAPTAIN

MOS: 1193

MOS Title: Field Artillery Unit Commander

Entered: 5805

Discharged: 730906

Service Number:

State: UNKNOWN

Race: CAUCASIAN

cheers

Valery

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