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


Teamski
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Holley David Goff right after completing basic in 1947. Big red one

 

 

And him with another patch but I can’t figure out what it is.

E0E0EEDD-A0CA-4BA5-8E89-A594EE67D5E4.jpeg.1df4b16b31d3ac9eb69439ab9c3dad2f.jpeg18B338A7-EA8E-4B33-A780-28B65A4E98FB.jpeg.a6ff0a490ba3fbb4571ae5fd9ef3781a.jpeg

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seanmc1114

A couple of photos of the 71st Infantry Division SSI worn during the 50's when the unit was organized as a static division with elements in Alaska and Washington State. The group photo of Company A 4th Infantry Regiment was taken at Fort Ricahrdson, Alaska in 1955.  

71st Infantry Division.1950's.2.jpg

71st Infantry Division.1950's.3.JPG

71st Infantry Division.1955.2.Alaska.Fort Richardson.jpg

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On 6/9/2022 at 11:00 PM, patches said:

30th Artillery Brigade on one LTC Theodore H. Schmidt in 1968, 30th Artillery Brigade was an anti aircraft brigade which was officially title Artillry as there was no Air Defense Artillery Branch when it was first activated, it was stationed on Okinawa then,

ltc theodore h. schmidt0005.jpg

I was assigned to the 30th Artillery Brigade on Okinawa in 1970-1972 and wore the SSI. Years later, as a Department of the Army Civilian, I found old letters or memos from the US Army Institute of Heraldry to the commander of the 30th Artillery Brigade informing him that his organization’s SSI could be the old WW1 era “Oozlefinch” SSI. The brigade commander responded that he was not interested in having his unit wear that design. Consequently, the pictured SSI was designed, approved, and adopted. I wish I had made a copy of that correspondence and I sure do regret I was not able to wear the “Oozlefinch” on my shoulder.

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13 hours ago, atb said:

I was assigned to the 30th Artillery Brigade on Okinawa in 1970-1972 and wore the SSI. Years later, as a Department of the Army Civilian, I found old letters or memos from the US Army Institute of Heraldry to the commander of the 30th Artillery Brigade informing him that his organization’s SSI could be the old WW1 era “Oozlefinch” SSI. The brigade commander responded that he was not interested in having his unit wear that design. Consequently, the pictured SSI was designed, approved, and adopted. I wish I had made a copy of that correspondence and I sure do regret I was not able to wear the “Oozlefinch” on my shoulder.

The patch in question.

 

 

 

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seanmc1114

This photo is from the U.S. Army Transportation Museum and shows soldiers wearing the Forces Command and Transportation Center and School SSI's in Grenada in 1983. I wonder if they wore those SSI as combat patches.

172B448A-34F1-44D6-9D78-6FD494427219.jpeg

B4DAB39C-EE8D-495C-963A-0267EB91F200.png

C6E87ACF-83AD-4734-8BD6-0119AF939F90.png

7C9217FB-9EB3-4571-8CA0-D384BA5F0C62.jpeg

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seanmc1114

Stand down of the 3rd Battalion 21st Infantry - the last infantry battalion serving in Vietnam - on August 12, 1972. The soldiers are wearing full color 196th Infantry Brigade SSI.

F6ADF4D4-3CA9-497B-A88A-D65C5DC74024.jpeg

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seanmc1114

Sergeant of Company A 75th Infantry (Ranger) wearing the RANGER and AIRBORNE tabs over his 1st Cavalry Division SSI at Fort Hood, Texas post- Vietnam War.

D42C49D5-BFF5-4E62-9FA3-313EFC21C2F4.jpeg

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13 hours ago, seanmc1114 said:

This photo is from the U.S. Army Transportation Museum and shows soldiers wearing the Forces Command and Transportation Center and School SSI's in Grenada in 1983. I wonder if they wore those SSI as combat patches.

172B448A-34F1-44D6-9D78-6FD494427219.jpeg

B4DAB39C-EE8D-495C-963A-0267EB91F200.png

C6E87ACF-83AD-4734-8BD6-0119AF939F90.png

7C9217FB-9EB3-4571-8CA0-D384BA5F0C62.jpeg

I wonder what units they were in, a WAG on the TC Center and School guy is he is of a TC unit that is school Support at Aberdeen, the FORSCOM guy is a basically the same deal. FORCOM had lots of Support units directly assigned to it, in example, when I was at Fort Benning for Basic and AIT, many of the truck drivers and those cattle car drivers who drove us around to various ranges or fatigue duty wore this patch, with a DI on their soft cap of a unit or units I gather now were TC units or the NCBU FORCOM DI.

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10 hours ago, seanmc1114 said:

Stand down of the 3rd Battalion 21st Infantry - the last infantry battalion serving in Vietnam - on August 12, 1972. The soldiers are wearing full color 196th Infantry Brigade SSI.

F6ADF4D4-3CA9-497B-A88A-D65C5DC74024.jpeg

Bob Hope's Christmas Show of 1971 see's these guys from the brigade at Da Nang wearing the full color patch as well.

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seanmc1114

Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges while commanding the Third Army stateside during World War II before leading the First Army in the ETO. 

Third Army.Courtney Hodges.png

Third Army.Courtney Hodges.Stateside.2.jpg

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seanmc1114

Artillery and Missile School SSI and 19th Field Artillery DUI's worn by a drill instructor with the Combat Infantryman Badge and Infantry branch insignia, shoulder cord and disc backings. He was cadre with the 1/19th Field Artillery from 1993 to 1996. The 1/19th FA was assigned to the Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in 1987. I'm not sure what the infantry connection would be. 

Artillery And Missile School.Infantry.Shoulder Cord.jpg

Artillery And Missile School.SSI.jpg

19th Field Artillery.DUI.jpg

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mysteriousoozlefinch

Staff Sergeant William F. "Frank" Bibb, mortar section leader, Company C, 3/87th Infantry from 1981.  96th ARCOM/Infantry Division on the shoulder and 10th (Mountain) Division as a pocket patch without the tab.  Appears to have the 87th Infantry DUI on the cap above SSGT rank pin.

 

Army Reserve Magazine, Winter 1981

Bibb 3-87th.png

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On 7/8/2022 at 10:53 AM, seanmc1114 said:

Artillery and Missile School SSI and 19th Field Artillery DUI's worn by a drill instructor with the Combat Infantryman Badge and Infantry branch insignia, shoulder cord and disc backings. He was cadre with the 1/19th Field Artillery from 1993 to 1996. The 1/19th FA was assigned to the Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in 1987. I'm not sure what the infantry connection would be. 

Artillery And Missile School.Infantry.Shoulder Cord.jpg

Artillery And Missile School.SSI.jpg

19th Field Artillery.DUI.jpg

One of my DIs was Infantry at MP OSUT in 1984.  Everyone wore TRADOC patches except those assigned to the school and they wore MP School patches.  My other DIs were MP MOS.  I can only guess TRADOC needed NCOS in positions and MOSQ was not that big of a deal.

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3 hours ago, mysteriousoozlefinch said:

Staff Sergeant William F. "Frank" Bibb, mortar section leader, Company C, 3/87th Infantry from 1981.  96th ARCOM/Infantry Division on the shoulder and 10th (Mountain) Division as a pocket patch without the tab.  Appears to have the 87th Infantry DUI on the cap above SSGT rank pin.

 

Army Reserve Magazine, Winter 1981

Bibb 3-87th.png

Now this is inexplicable right. Getting a hint the 3rd Battalion 87th Infantry was a Reserve unit, in Colorado in the 96th ARCOM, which is most rare, ARCOM.s tend contain a host of Support Units of the Reserve.

 

And that brings up something that's been bothering me for 40 plus years, in that in my Infantry Basic yearbook for April 1980, there is a stock photo in it of a Trainee who is wearing the 83rd ARCOM patch, patches start to be worn by Trainees for the unit they know they're going to, photo is from around 1977, I asked why, as its an ARCOM, they don't have Infantry, could  now some ARCOMs had T0&E Infantry battalions of the Reserve in them then????

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mysteriousoozlefinch
10 minutes ago, patches said:

Now this is inexplicable right.

Wikipedia has an uncited commented that says:

 

Quote

In addition to the 96th shoulder sleeve insignia, members of the unit wore color 10th Division shoulder sleeve insignia on the left front pocket of fatigue shirts to signify the battalion's historical link to the then-inactive division. Mountain tabs were not worn over the patch as they were almost impossible to find before the division was reactivated at Fort Drum and tabs went into production again.

 

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3 minutes ago, mysteriousoozlefinch said:

Wikipedia has an uncited commented that says:

 

 

Wow something new, photos of this will be virtually non existent., never seen that, nor of  Regular Army CARS Infantry Battalions assigned to an ARCOM, maybe this started in the mid 60s when all those Reserve Infantry Divisions were inactivated??? with the 96th it was as you know inactivated in 1963 and that brigade was activated in its place, the 191st Infantry Brigade, it was inactivated in 1968, so maybe that's when the 3rd Battalion 87th Infantry was activated and assigned???

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mysteriousoozlefinch
18 minutes ago, patches said:

Wow something new, photos of this will be virtually non existent., never seen that, nor of  Regular Army CARS Infantry Battalions assigned to an ARCOM, maybe this started in the mid 60s when all those Reserve Infantry Divisions were inactivated??? with the 96th it was as you know inactivated in 1963 and that brigade was activated in its place, the 191st Infantry Brigade, it was inactivated in 1968, so maybe that's when the 3rd Battalion 87th Infantry was activated and assigned???

 

Per the lineage, it was activated in 1975 and inactivated in 1994.  Activated during the Gulf War and sent to Germany to guard empty V Corps facilities.  Apparently they were a wartime CAPSTONE to the 193rd IB in Panama.

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA277590.pdf

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39 minutes ago, mysteriousoozlefinch said:

 

Per the lineage, it was activated in 1975 and inactivated in 1994.  Activated during the Gulf War and sent to Germany to guard empty V Corps facilities.  Apparently they were a wartime CAPSTONE to the 193rd IB in Panama.

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA277590.pdf

Interesting, it also states the 3/87th was one of only two Reserve Infantry Battalions not assigned to one of those brigades at that time, the 1157th, 187th and 205th, the other being the 100/442nd out in Hawaii. Still I wonder about the Infantry AIT Trainee at Benning in 77 with the 83rd ARCOM patch on.

83rd-infantry-division-subdued-patch-805466.jpg

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Infantry School SSI with shoulder cord and disc backings and the DUI of the 54th Infantry from around 1996. I don't see a drill sergeant badge, but of course there were other non-DS cadre assigned to such training units.

Infantry School.2-46th Infantry.1996.jpg

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A Medical Service Corps aviator who served with the 45th Medical Company (Air Ambulance) and 326th Medical Battalion around 1970 - 1971 wearing the 101st Airborne Division SSI with DUST OFF tab.

101st Airborne Division.Dust Off Tab.Vietnam.1.jpg

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20 minutes ago, seanmc1114 said:

A Medical Service Corps aviator who served with the 45th Medical Company (Air Ambulance) and 326th Medical Battalion around 1970 - 1971 wearing the 101st Airborne Division SSI with DUST OFF tab.

101st Airborne Division.Dust Off Tab.Vietnam.1.jpg

I came back to this post too late to edit it, so I'm attaching a closeup of the patch and tab in the photo along with an example of the patch/tab configuration I found online.

101st Airborne Division.Dust Off Tab.Vietnam.2.jpg

101st Airborne Division.Dust Off Tab.Vietnam.3.jpg

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