Patches in action: Photos of SSI being worn by the troops.

[Ranger-1972]

SSIs (a family history).

 

My dad joined the 115th Medical Regiment of the 40th Division (CA NG) while a pre-med student in 1939 (back when the NG divisions were still 'square' divisions with a full medical regiment to support the division's four infantry and two artillery regiments).  The 40th was federalized on 3 March 1941. Two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, dad got a 4-hour pass to get married.  The first photo shows him on his wedding day, as a corporal with the 40th Div SSI on his left shoulder.  As part of mobilization, the NG divisions were converted to 'modern' divisions (three infantry regiments), and the medical regiment was scaled down to a medical battalion -- so lots of folks got reassigned to other units. Dad went of to the SW Pacific -- first with the AMERICAL division as it was being formed on New Caledonia, and then with various Station Hospitals and Portable Surgical Hospitals (MASH units) on Guadalcanal, New Hebrides, New Guinea, and New Britain. In October 1944, he went ashore first at Leyte and then in December 1944 at Luzon during the Philippine campaign, ending the war as the acting 1SG in the 161st General Hospital outside Manila, awaiting the invasion of Japan. Second photo shows him as a Technical Sergeant when he got back to the States in Dec 1945 (wearing the Army Service Forces SSI, but no branch or US insignia on the lapels of his Eisenhower jacket).  Can't make out the SSI on his right sleeve. Instead of going back to medical school after being demobilized (long story), he went to work for the VA in one of their machine records units. When he was recalled to active duty during the Korean War, he was assigned to the AG Corps which handled machine records (third photo is of him as an E-6 in September 1950 at the Presidio of San Francisco, with the Sixth Army SSI). He was sent to OCS and commissioned into the AG Corps.  Fourth photo is him wearing an officer's uniform (also with the Sixth Army SSI on his left sleeve and the Pacific Theater patch -- red arrow on a blue circle with the Southern Cross as white stars -- on his right sleeve), before we were transferred to Seventh Army HQ in Germany, where he was promoted to captain (fifth photo shows the Seventh Army SSI, when Army officers still wore pinks & greens).  In 1957, after returning from Europe, dad was one of thousands of WWII / Korean War veterans who fell under the Reduction in Force imposed by President Eisenhower.  To ensure the US Government didn't have to pay retirement pensions for Reserve Component officers who had been promoted from the ranks during those wars (many of those officers were about to be 'locked in' for retirement at 20 years' service), Eisenhower RIFed almost all of them.  (Columnist Robert Ruark wrote a scathing editorial about officers who had been promoted from the ranks in WWII and Korea having to revert to their permanent enlisted ranks if they wanted to serve out their time and retire. It was promised they could retire at their officer's grade at 20 years' service, but in 1958, that was changed and they could not draw their retired officer's pay until 30 years' service.  Art Buchwald wrote of ex-colonels and ex-lieutenant colonels serving as sergeants and corporals in the units they had previously commanded.)  Dad went from Captain to Sergeant (Dec 1957), then Staff Sergeant (1961) and then SFC (1963), as shown in the sixth photo, when he was an instructor at the High Altitude Missile Department at Ft Bliss (the SSI is not visible, but it is that of the Air Defense School).  Though he retired from active duty in 1966, he was not able to draw retired pay as a captain until 1975 because of the break in service from 1945-50).

[easterneagle87]

A little snap shot I just picked up in an antique store. Army nurse with 7th Army patch on her right shoulder. Not enough of a turn to see what is on her left shoulder. 

[patches]

One Charles Stewart in 1951 with the 5th Infantry Division Indiantown Gap, Stewart is an interesting one, was captured in Africa in December 1942 with the 1st Infantry Division, 16th Infantry I think, and I think captured by the Italians as he's sent onto Italy and stays there rather than being sent to Germany. It's in Italy where he would escape, escapes at the time  Italy surrenders (Kinda Like in the movie Von Ryan's Escape )  and gains Allied Lines, sent back to the states in due course, he volunteers for further combat after a bit, this time going to the Pacific, where he volunteers for the Alamo Scouts.

[seanmc1114]

8 hours ago, patches said:

One Charles Stewart in 1951 with the 5th Infantry Division Indiantown Gap, Stewart is an interesting one, was captured in Africa in December 1942 with the 1st Infantry Division, 16th Infantry I think, and I think captured by the Italians as he's sent onto Italy and stays there rather than being sent to Germany. It's in Italy where he would escape, escapes at the time  Italy surrenders (Kinda Like in the movie Von Ryan's Escape )  and gains Allied Lines, sent back to the states in due course, he volunteers for further combat after a bit, this time going to the Pacific, where he volunteers for the Alamo Scouts.

Note his ribbons are all out of order.

[Ranger-1972]

It was my observation that the correct order in which personal awards and decorations were worn was not very strictly enforced before the mid-1970s.  As a youngster growing up (with an interest in all things military) observing my dad's friends, and then as a young officer at the tail end of the Vietnam War (with lots of Korean War vets still on active duty), Soldiers tended to wear their ribbons in varying orders that had little to do with what the AR might have prescribed.  During & after WWII, senior officers often only wore one row of ribbons, rather than all the awards they had earned (see the photos of Army Chief of Staff Malin Craig and General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower -- MacArthur and Patton were obvious exceptions). NCOs tended to be promoted based on locally convened boards at unit level, and at least in the 1950s, officers didn't even wear their awards and decorations on their official DA photos.  The rise of centralized selection boards began to force uniformity on the wear of awards and decorations.

[seanmc1114]

Army recruiter wearing the second style SSI with U.S. ARMY at the top alongside Miss Army Recruiter 1962. The woman looks familiar but I can't quite place her.  I'm sure whoever she is, she did quite a bit of good for Army recruiting. 🙈🙉🙊. 

[seanmc1114]

Soldier of the the 196th Infantry Brigade wearing a full color SSI arriving in Vietnam on August 14, 1966. The border appears to be a lighter shade than the blue of the shield.

[seanmc1114]

Almost six years later to the day. South Vietnamese Lt. Gen. Ngo Quang Truong, commander of the First Regional Command, pins medal on a soldier of the 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry, the last U.S. combat unit in Vietnam, during the unit's deactivation ceremony at Da Nang August 12, 1972. Looking on is the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Rocco Negris (L). Even though they are obscured by the watermark, the 196th Infantry Brigade SSI the soldiers are wearing appear to be full color with a border lighter in shade than the blue shield.

 

[seanmc1114]

Troops of Company C 87th Infantry, a rifle security company, on patrol through an area of elephant grass and paddy field north of Long Binh Post Army base near Saigon during combat in the Vietnam War in November 1972. The company stood down that same month. They are wearing the U.S. Army Vietnam SSI.

[seanmc1114]

Soldiers from the 3th Brigade 1st Cavalry Division patrol in the forest at Xuan Loc district in the Northeast of Bien Hoa city on January 22, 1972.

[seanmc1114]

Sergeant Harold Blye, 3rd Battalion 60th Infantry 9th Division, stands at attention wearing a lei as part of the first troops returning to Seattle from Vietnam during the Vietnam War. July 1969. Note he is wearing the fourragere of the Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation and a pin on metal Combat Infantryman Badge partly obscured by his lei. 

[seanmc1114]

A color photo of 9th Infantry Division soldiers arriving stateside during the 9th's July 1969 redeployment from Vietnam. Note they are also wearing the fourragere of the Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation and a patch type crest for the 9th ID on their pockets.

[seanmc1114]

Private Daniel R. Edwards of Company C, 3rd Machine Gun Battalion, 1st Division, receives the Distinguished Service Cross and Congressional Medal of Honor from Major General Robert Lee Bullard at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Club of New York, April 6, 1923.

[patches]

18 hours ago, seanmc1114 said:

Soldier of the the 196th Infantry Brigade wearing a full color SSI arriving in Vietnam on August 14, 1966. The border appears to be a lighter shade than the blue of the shield.

Yeah it looks curiously like a Vietnamese made one in the 1972 photo you posted above,  it's just how did he acquire it! As he's arriving off the boat to South Vietnam.

[seanmc1114]

A nice color photo of a 173rd Airborne Brigade artillery officer from 1965. Note his gold on black U.S. Army tape appears to be theater made.

[seanmc1114]

eneral Headquarters, Southwest Pacific. Photo caption: "Major General Paul Mueller, Chief of Staff, Far East Command (left), congratulates SSgt Busby, assigned to 441st CIO Detachment, shortly after presenting the latter with an oak leaf cluster to his Bronze Star during an Army Day review held at the Emperor's Palace Plaza, Tokyo, Japan, April 6, 1948.

[seanmc1114]

Photo caption says: "National Guard troops deployed to the University of Alabama to force its desegregation, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, US, 11th June 1963." If correct, they would presumably be from the 20th Special Forces Group. 

[e19]

5 hours ago, seanmc1114 said:

Photo caption says: "National Guard troops deployed to the University of Alabama to force its desegregation, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, US, 11th June 1963." If correct, they would presumably be from the 20th Special Forces Group. 

Yes, that was 20th Grp.

[seanmc1114]

One officer is wearing the Far East Command SSI with tab and the other the Military Assistance Advisory Group SSI. Photo caption reads: "U.S. Secretary of the Army Wilber M. Brucker visits the Japan Ground Self-Denfese Force Nerima Base on December 6, 1955 in Tokyo, Japan."

[patches]

10 hours ago, seanmc1114 said:

One officer is wearing the Far East Command SSI with tab and the other the Military Assistance Advisory Group SSI. Photo caption reads: "U.S. Secretary of the Army Wilber M. Brucker visits the Japan Ground Self-Denfese Force Nerima Base on December 6, 1955 in Tokyo, Japan."

I wonder what the Tab says,

 

Maybe this one???

 

see #637  by tredhed

 

 

 

[seanmc1114]

Warrant officer with a senior parachutist badge wearing the Alabama National Guard SSI with AIRBORNE tab. I have no idea what unit that might represent, but he was an aviator and served with the 15th Medical Battalion in Vietnam 1967-1968.

[patches]

1 hour ago, seanmc1114 said:

Warrant officer with a senior parachutist badge wearing the Alabama National Guard SSI with AIRBORNE tab. I have no idea what unit that might represent, but he was an aviator and served with the 15th Medical Battalion in Vietnam 1967-1968.

We noticed he isn't wearing the Aviator Badge, if he was a Aviator surly we would think he'd wear one, a cloth one just above his jump wings.

 

One the tab, note he has his meal badge on an Oval, looks like the genic Infantry type right. got to be some kind of jump unit under Alabama HQ,, a small and obscured one.

[Ranger-1972]

Could be that he went through aviation school after this photo was taken.  I had friends who served a tour in the infantry or artillery, and then became aviators later in their career (the Army was ramping up rotary-wing aviation during the Vietnam War).

[seanmc1114]

10 hours ago, Ranger-1972 said:

Could be that he went through aviation school after this photo was taken.  I had friends who served a tour in the infantry or artillery, and then became aviators later in their career (the Army was ramping up rotary-wing aviation during the Vietnam War).

True, but that would mean he was already a warrant officer serving in some other capacity in a unit of the Alabama National Guard on jump status before attending flight school. Not impossible, just unusual.

[seanmc1114]

Fifth Army. Master Sgt. Talmadge Driggers tightening the regulation jumping saddle on his US Army mule, Hambone. I believe the photo is from 1949. What style of rank chevrons is he wearing? They look like the smaller women's version. The third photo shows his China-Burma-India Theater combat patch.