I hinted at this grouping I've had for some time on another post of mine so I thought I would show off some photos.

 

This group belongs to BG David E. Thomas , a veteran of three wars, he was the first active army medical officer to become parachute qualified in WWII. He was the surgeon for the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment and jumped into Normandy with them on June 6th 44 and also accompanied them into and the battle of the Bulge.

In the Korean war he was the chief of surgery for three Army hospitals in Japan and he was in charge of the MEDCOM in Vietnam he medically retired in 1972. Sorry for some of the photos, I didn't have any with me so I had a friend back home take them for me. Some things are rotated

 

This group consists of his captains bars and one star rank, a bronze star that is very clean, probably from Vietnam. A cut 82nd patch and jump wings oval, his medical collar insignia, medic badge and jump wings. Three photos gwo from WWII, and one from VN. A letter from 19 Sep 72 announcing his permanent disability retirement and a letter on his one star letterhead signed by him stating these items were him.

 

Mike

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Like I said, I had a friend take them so that's why the oval is turned.

...again friend took the photo. Not responsible for upsidedown wings. Unless that's the rare variation for jumping in Australia.

his letter of retirement

and here is the letter from General Thomas. I marked out the name of who originally received the group.

Cool, sweet stuff man!

Very nice group. It's interesting that in the photo of the General in his Vietnam jungle jacket, he is wearing his Medical Corps branch insignia with his Brigadier General's star. Technically general officers are not assigned to a particular branch, hence the term "general", but I think it is fairly common for generals in the technical fields such as medical to wear their branch insignia. Probably the most famous example of this is General Leslie Groves who oversaw the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb in World War II. You often see pictures of him wearing his Corps Of Engineers insignia. I have also seen it with Chaplain Corps general officers.

Very nice grouping with indisputable provenance. You can't ask for better than that! :thumbsup: