CD Smith

[AndrewA74]

FYI- The other patches at the end also came with it along with a CBI patch.

Andrew

[dustin]

FYI- The other patches at the end also came with it along with a CBI patch.

Andrew

andrew with that in mind I did some more quick research.MAR&S-1 was transfered to SCAT in january 1944 (South pacific Combat Air Transport) these units had repair and salvage shops. they carried supplies and troops in and around the solomons (guadalcanal etc.) then Samar,mindinao,okinawa during the war and right after the war ended they operated in china at Tsankou Field between Shanghai, Peiping, Tientsin, Iwo Jima and Guam.So it seems the with the manuals he has the patches that came with the group the 1st marine division,MAW-1 and the CBI patch have a link with one another.SCAT was was part of the MAW-1 control it seems to be coming togehter wether correct or not is another story

[AndrewA74]

andrew with that in mind I did some more quick research.MAR&S-1 was transfered to a SCAT unit january 1944 (South pacific Combat Air Transport) these units had repair and salvage shops. they carried supplies and troops in and around the solomons (guadalcanal etc.) then Samar,mindinao,okinawa during the war and right after the war ended they operated in china at Tsankou Field between Shanghai, Peiping, Tientsin, Iwo Jima and Guam.So it seems the with the manuals he has the patches that came with the group the 1st marine division,MAW-1 and the CBI patch have a link with one another.SCAT was was part of the MAW-1 control

THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESEARCH! YOU ARE A GREAT DETECTIVE!

Andrew

[GLM]

Andrew,

 

It's possible that the Army shirt may have been from Army service by a son during the Vietnam era? My Vietnam era Marine uniforms are hanging in the closet right next to my dad's WWII Army uniforms and I know for a fact that if my wife auctioned them off, they'd be mixed up because she really doesn't know the differences between the two branches.

 

A few other observations. It's my guess that the 1st Marine Division patch, CBI patch and any other patches that don't directly link to 1st MAW were probably nothing more than souvenir patches he picked up across the Pacific and/or China. It's a sure bet that he was a Master Tech Sgt by war's end, most likely an Aviation Machinist with the 1st Air Wing from what he has on his uniforms and unless an "Airedale" or "Air Winger" screwed up pretty badly, they just didn't get sent or transferred to Rifle Divisions, so you can rule out 1st Mar Div as one of his units. Also, it looks like you have a dress or shiny brass emblem on his green service hat, so you need to put one of the larger darkened bronze emblems on it for it to be correct.

 

One more thing. The Marine Corps had a one chevron per uniform regulation for a period during WWII, so no chevrons have been removed from his blouses or jackets. That's the way he wore them, so don't add any of the spare chevrons you have there. It would just damage the value of the group. That's a very nice legitimate grouping you found! Congrats!

 

Gary

[AndrewA74]

Andrew,

 

It's possible that the Army shirt may have been from Army service by a son during the Vietnam era? My Vietnam era Marine uniforms are hanging in the closet right next to my dad's WWII Army uniforms and I know for a fact that if my wife auctioned them off, they'd be mixed up because she really doesn't know the differences between the two branches.

 

A few other observations. It's my guess that the 1st Marine Division patch, CBI patch and any other patches that don't directly link to 1st MAW were probably nothing more than souvenir patches he picked up across the Pacific and/or China. It's a sure bet that he was a Master Tech Sgt by war's end, most likely an Aviation Machinist with the 1st Air Wing from what he has on his uniforms and unless an "Airedale" or "Air Winger" screwed up pretty badly, they just didn't get sent or transferred to Rifle Divisions, so you can rule out 1st Mar Div as one of his units. Also, it looks like you have a dress or shiny brass emblem on his green service hat, so you need to put one of the larger darkened bronze emblems on it for it to be correct.

 

One more thing. The Marine Corps had a one chevron per uniform regulation for a period during WWII, so no chevrons have been removed from his blouses or jackets. That's the way he wore them, so don't add any of the spare chevrons you have there. It would just damage the value of the group. That's a very nice legitimate grouping you found! Congrats!

 

Gary

Thank you for the reply! It is possible that it may be that it was mixed up, though there is also a "Army Housewife" sewing (?) bag that I didn't show. It's very small and WWII era. I wouldn't DREAM of putting more back / off. As for the EGA, I'm also going to leave it alone, because THAT'S THE WAY I FOUND IT. I raely correct uniforms of this era or anything else. Thank you again.

Andrew

[bobgee]

Thank you for the reply! It is possible that it may be that it was mixed up, though there is also a "Army Housewife" sewing (?) bag that I didn't show. It's very small and WWII era. I wouldn't DREAM of putting more back / off. As for the EGA, I'm also going to leave it alone, because THAT'S THE WAY I FOUND IT. I raely correct uniforms of this era or anything else. Thank you again.

Andrew

quote]

 

Andrew. Nice collection!

Of course, we all know that the CBI patch is an Army thing. But over the years I have been surprised several times to find them in USMC and USN Aviator groups from near the end of the war, when we operating over Formosa and mainland China. They were on flight suits and loose in the gear. Got a couple of silk Blood Chits and CBI patches from a USMC Corsair pilot who flew out of Okinawa in 1945.

 

Re: The 1stMarDiv patch I agree with Gary...........but like a lot of these things we'll never really know.

Semper Fi..............Bob

[dustin]

In my responses i should have made it more clear that the patches were souvenir IMO also.Whether or not he had more patches is another question and just got displaced over the years but if these were the only two then there had to be a more valid reason.It seems we all agree that he was a machinist etc.. working on aircraft so if that is the case he had to belong to those types of units that is where I had made a case that he was part of the MARS unit then SCAT as they pertain to aircraft maintenence and repair for the USMC, CASU and others were US navy related but could have been attached to these types of units as well.And the rank points to him being in the corp before the war so he would have possibly been stationed in aussie land or the solomons from the begining near or with attachments of the 1st marine division and kept/obtained a patch for a souvenir and if he was with a marine salvag and repair unit it is quite possible he was folded into SCAT as I stated before were under MAW-1 control.so with service near the end or shortly there after he would have been in or near CBI territory and Bob stated

" USMC and USN Aviator groups from near the end of the war, when we operating over Formosa and mainland China. They were on flight suits and loose in the gear. Got a couple of silk Blood Chits and CBI patches from a USMC Corsair pilot who flew out of Okinawa in 1945."

which is very true ,and he obtained a CBI SSI for a souvenir of his service there?! for people that are wondering ,the CBI SSI was for recogniton puporses if forced down over china, a very trimmed down blood chit.A very recoginzable symbol among friendly chinese as insignia of allies and enemy of the japanese very comon SSI distributed among USN and AAF aviators.

since we are the the subject here is a good example of CBI sewn onto a naval aviators flight suit

I would imagine these types of repair units were tranfered all over the place consistantly and trying to track down a common name such as CD Smith is a daunting task and so finding a roster of sorts is a white elephant IMO.

[Bones]

That is a nice grouping, well worth the $60.00.