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My first Ike


erctut1
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I'm a bit embarrassed asking this but I will anyways. What do the shoulder patches on my Ike mean? I know the left one is the ETOUSA and the right is the 75th ID. The ETOUSA thows me off. I don't really understand it. What unit is this guy with?

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The 75th Infantry Div was this GI's combat overseas assignment. It was an element of 9th US Army. All elements of 9th US Army were turned over to COM Z - the actual title of the unit for that patch is Headquarters, European Theater of Operations, Communications Zone, officially abbreviated HQ, ETOUSA, COM Z but more commonly called simply COM Z.

 

In simplest terms, COM Z was one big ** sized logistics unit.

 

Your GI would have worn the 75th ID SSI until it was transferred to COM Z; then an Army Regulation (AR) would have caused him to transfer the 75th ID SSI to his right sleeve and wear the COM Z patch, his new "unit of assignment" on his left.

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The 75th Infantry Div was this GI's combat overseas assignment. It was an element of 9th US Army. All elements of 9th US Army were turned over to COM Z - the actual title of the unit for that patch is Headquarters, European Theater of Operations, Communications Zone, officially abbreviated HQ, ETOUSA, COM Z but more commonly called simply COM Z.

 

In simplest terms, COM Z was one big ** sized logistics unit.

 

Your GI would have worn the 75th ID SSI until it was transferred to COM Z; then an Army Regulation (AR) would have caused him to transfer the 75th ID SSI to his right sleeve and wear the COM Z patch, his new "unit of assignment" on his left.

I think I got it. So the right sleeve is his previous unit?
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Right sleeve is the previous COMBAT unit.
If i was going to write a brief description on this jacket regarding his units what would you write?
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What would this artillery Sgt be doing in COM Z? Would he have been augmented into logistics?

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Right sleeve is the previous COMBAT unit.

Combat had nothing to do with it and still does not. In WW2 the former overseas unit was to be transferred to the right sleeve. The key word is overseas and that could be anywhere and any unit, combat or not. Sometime after WW2, the regulation was changed so instead of just overseas, the area had to be declared as part of the area of operations, but still no combat is necessary. It is the same today, no combat needed, just presence in the right place. A clerk in Vietnam who never left the base, wearing the US Army Vietnam SSI was just as entitled to wear his USARV SSI on the right shoulder as an infantryman in the 173rd ABN BDE to his SSI. In WW2, a clerk in the Bahamas or England or Hawaii moved his SSI to the right soulder, too, when returning to the US.

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What would this artillery Sgt be doing in COM Z? Would he have been augmented into logistics?

 

Alot of personnel were rotated home through the COM-Z from various other units. I have a 29th ID Ike from a local 116th vet that was transferred into the COM-Z (Bremen Enclave) from the 29th before rotating home in late '45-early '46.....

 

ETO patch on the left shoulder, 'Silk' home-made (and reversed) 29th patch on right shoulder.

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Alot of personnel were rotated home through the COM-Z from various other units. I have a 29th ID Ike from a local 116th vet that was transferred into the COM-Z (Bremen Enclave) from the 29th before rotating home in late '45-early '46.....

 

ETO patch on the left shoulder, 'Silk' home-made (and reversed) 29th patch on right shoulder.

So is it safe to say he probably spent most of his time in the 75th ID?
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So is it safe to say he probably spent most of his time in the 75th ID?

 

Well, I'd say his time in the 75th probably ended in late-Spring/early summer 1945 or thereabouts. Hard to say about how long he was in combat w/o further research.

 

The 29thID Ike I have belonged to a vet who enilsted in the National Guard in 1934, and was in the 3rd Batallion of the 116th for 11 years, until the end of the war---then he was tranferred to the Bremen Enclave, ETO/COM-Z until he came home from the war....this was only a few months.

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Well, I'd say his time in the 75th probably ended in late-Spring/early summer 1945 or thereabouts. Hard to say about how long he was in combat w/o further research.

 

The 29thID Ike I have belonged to a vet who enilsted in the National Guard in 1934, and was in the 3rd Batallion of the 116th for 11 years, until the end of the war---then he was tranferred to the Bremen Enclave, ETO/COM-Z until he came home from the war....this was only a few months.

Thanks for all your help I really appreciate it. But would this guy have done in COM Z?
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Thanks for all your help I really appreciate it. But would this guy have done in COM Z?

 

My guy was a Co. 1st Sgt., but many units were simply assigned sentry duty, after all it was the beginning of the occupation. I'm sure others can chime in that know much more than I do about this particular period....I'd have to read up on it for sure.

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My guy was a Co. 1st Sgt., but many units were simply assigned sentry duty, after all it was the beginning of the occupation. I'm sure others can chime in that know much more than I do about this particular period....I'd have to read up on it for sure.
So some sort of occupation duty. I got it. Some of these coats are harder to read than I thought. Thanks!
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I recall once looking at an Ike jacket that was still in the veteran's possession. On the left shoulder was the ubiquitous Com Z patch. When I called it that, the veteran admantly replied that the patch in question was the "Repple- Depple" patch that he was forced to wear while sitting in a replacement depot waiting for a permanent assignment. While he was there, the point totals dropped for redeployment to the states, so he shipped home in a gaggle of troops and not as part of a returning division.

Allan

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