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

[SFC]

[patches]

Nisei students from 4 different units at the Military Intelligence Service Language School Presidio of San Francisco I think pre Pearl Harbor in November 1941, 40th Division, 7th Division, Army Ground Forces, and 4th Army

[seanmc1114]

122nd Army Reserve Command

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The Civil Affairs mission in the Korean War began as an ad-hoc effort but rapidly grew. As the strategic situation of the war evolved, so did the role of CA. Although U.S. combat divisions had separate CA officers assigned to their staffs, a Far East Command (FECOM) element, the 8201st Army Unit (AU), was the main effort. The 8201st AU had four different titles in its short lifespan from 1950 to 1955: the UN Public Health and Welfare Detachment, the United Nations Civil Assistance Command (UNCAC), the United Nations Civil Assistance Command, Korea (UNCACK), and the Korea Civil Assistance Command (KCAC). 

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Here's an interesting one. The soldier is Chaplain Angelo Liteky who earned the Medal of Honor while serving with the 199th Infantry Brigade in Vietnam. The caption on the back of the photo indicates it was taken at a 199th fire base in June 1968 by a member of the 199th Information Office. But notice that he is wearing a 1st Infantry Division SSI. 

[atb]

1 hour ago, seanmc1114 said:

Here's an interesting one. The soldier is Chaplain Angelo Liteky who earned the Medal of Honor while serving with the 199th Infantry Brigade in Vietnam. The caption on the back of the photo indicates it was taken at a 199th fire base in June 1968 by a member of the 199th Information Office. But notice that he is wearing a 1st Infantry Division SSI. 

Maybe he just never changed his SSI?

[439th Signal Battalion]

2 hours ago, seanmc1114 said:

Here's an interesting one. The soldier is Chaplain Angelo Liteky who earned the Medal of Honor while serving with the 199th Infantry Brigade in Vietnam. The caption on the back of the photo indicates it was taken at a 199th fire base in June 1968 by a member of the 199th Information Office. But notice that he is wearing a 1st Infantry Division SSI. 

Chaplain Liteky was never with the 1st, only the 199th LIB.  Liteky was pretty nonchalant.  I'd say that he just picked up a jacket from resupply and put that one on like most of the other field personnel.  (I don't see any rank or collar insignia either).    

[seanmc1114]

Major General Edward M. Almond who commanded the 92nd Infantry Division in the United States though its combat in Italy from 1942 to 1945. Note in the first photo, which may have been taken stateside since he does not yet have any of the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater ribbon, that he is wearing the Army Air Forces Aircraft Observer wings. The only connection I can find to justify that in his Wikipedia entry is that he attended the Air Corps Tactical School in 1939 or 1940. I can't find any other picture with him wearing the badge.      

[seanmc1114]

Major General Edward M. Almond commanded the 2nd Infantry Division at Camp Swift, Texas from 1945 to 1946.

[patches]

This something I just discovered, Almond's Son was KIA in the Alsace with the 45th Inf Div.

 

Captain Edward Mallory Almond Jr.

C.O. Company L 157th Infantry

 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7609350/edward-mallory-almond

[Ranger-1972]

25 minutes ago, patches said:

This something I just discovered, Almond's Son was KIA in the Alsace with the 45th Inf Div.

 

Captain Edward Mallory Almond Jr.

C.O. Company L 157th Infantry

 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7609350/edward-mallory-almond

 

His son-in-law, Major Thomas Taylor Galloway (USMA '42), was a fighter pilot (in the 436th Fighter Squadron) who was also killed in Europe (France) during WWII (24 Jul 1944). Maj. Thomas Taylor “Tom” Galloway (1919-1944) - Find a Grave Memorial

 

General Almond died in San Antonio, Texas in 1979.

 

VMI still awards the Lieutenant General Edward Mallory Almond '15 Award annually to the First Classman (senior) for academic, athletic, and military excellence.  There is also a portrait of the general in the VMI library (showing him wearing the X Corps SSI).  It is on the same floor as the portrait of then-General George C. Marshall, VMI '01, when he was serving as the Army Chief of Staff during WWII.

 

 

[seanmc1114]

Major General Ashton H. Manhart, commanding general of the 5th Infantry Division and Fort Carson - April 1962. Note the miniature Combat Infantryman Badge.

[Rhscott]

On 6/1/2024 at 12:36 AM, Ranger-1972 said:

 

His son-in-law, Major Thomas Taylor Galloway (USMA '42), was a fighter pilot (in the 436th Fighter Squadron) who was also killed in Europe (France) during WWII (24 Jul 1944). Maj. Thomas Taylor “Tom” Galloway (1919-1944) - Find a Grave Memorial

 

General Almond died in San Antonio, Texas in 1979.

 

VMI still awards the Lieutenant General Edward Mallory Almond '15 Award annually to the First Classman (senior) for academic, athletic, and military excellence.  There is also a portrait of the general in the VMI library (showing him wearing the X Corps SSI).  It is on the same floor as the portrait of then-General George C. Marshall, VMI '01, when he was serving as the Army Chief of Staff during WWII.

 

 

The 1st Marine Div had a different opinion of General Almond

[atb]

2 hours ago, Rhscott said:

The 1st Marine Div had a different opinion of General Almond

As did some in the Army about his command of the 92nd Infantry Division in Italy.

[seanmc1114]

Brigadier General Robert D. Terry, commanding general of the 1st Signal Brigade, and LTC John P. Dobbins, commanding officer of the 69th Signal Battalion, wearing the Strategic Communications Command SSI in Vietnam on 11 October 1966. The SSI for the 1st Signal Brigade was only approved by the Institute of Heraldry on 5 October 1966.  

 

 

 

 

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Brigadier General Ray D. Free, commanding general of the 96th Army Reserve Command - 1968

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Members of Company O 75th Infantry - the Arctic Rangers - wearing AIRBORNE tabs over their U.S. Army Alaska SSI. They are being greeted by General William C. Westmoreland, Chief of Staff of the Army, on 18 August 1971. 

[patches]

7th Medical Brigade 1969 West Germany, as Medical unit, interesting they all armed with Rifles, M14s still at that,

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Going back eight year, the Berlin Brigade gets the new M14 Rifle issued, here troops handling the new weapon for the first time.

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One of the Armored or Mechanized Infantry units of the 25th inf Div in 1967

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Members of the 1st Battalion 124th Infantry wearing the Florida NG SSI in 1965. At the time, the unit had recently been relieved from assignment to the 48th Armored Division of the Georgia/Florida National Guards and assigned to the separate 53rd Armored Brigade of the Florida National Guard. The 53rd's SSI was approved on 4 December 1964, but in an earlier post, I showed a clipping that suggested the SSI was not worn by members of the unit until the summer of 1966.

 

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The first two photos show Colonel James M. Gibson, CO of the 1st Brigade 5th Infantry Division, receiving Vietnamese Gallantry Cross in January 1969.

 

The third photo shows Col. Gibson transferring command of the brigade to Colonel John L. Osteen, Jr. in June 1969.

 

Note the wear of the 5th ID SSI on the right side of their helmet covers. The SSI on both the uniforms and helmet covers all appear to be full color merrowed edge types.

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Medal Of Honor recipient Maximo Yabes wearing the 5th Infantry Division SSI, probably before his tour in Vietnam, and later wearing a 25th Infantry Division SSI and 187th Airborne RCT combat patch in Vietnam.

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15th Support Brigade at Fort Lewis, Washington - 1972. Note the members of the color guard are not wearing camouflage covers on their helmets. That was not super unusual for Reserve and National Guard units even at this late date, but this was an active unit.

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LTG Richard G. Stilwell, commanding general of the XXIV Corps, wearing a theater made SSI in Vietnam - October 1968.