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My wife's grandfather served in WW2 and her grandmother did her best to put together a shadowbox of all of his stuff. I retired in 2011 and when I moved in with her 3 years ago (my wife, not her grandmother) and brought my shadowbox along she decided to try and get one made with her grandfather's stuff. She pulled out his DD214, which I helped her understand and it turns out he was a loving no poo poo war hero. We are going to get a new ribbon rack and medals made for the shadowbox because his are in terrible shape. Here's how it currently looks: We are having a tough time identifying these patches though:    Any help with those three would be greatly appreciated.
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Feb 23, 2017 15:13
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 18:08 |
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When did he actually serve, and if known, where did he deploy to? What did he do (infantry, tanks, etc), and if known, in what subordinate units did he serve under Third Army? The unidentified patches look British, especially the one with the crowned lion (obviously). He might've just traded for it/them if he deployed with Third Army in 1944...they spent a long time sitting in England. Edit: The XX patch is XX Corps, a subordinate unit of Third Army. The other patches are not division or corps level from Third Army. They might be regimental or something else? Godholio fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Feb 23, 2017 |
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Feb 23, 2017 19:43
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The crossed cannon pin looks like a coastal artillery one. Not sure about the other stuff.
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Feb 23, 2017 20:25
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The red lion rampant is tricky as it could be any European nation-in-exile, but it doesn't seem to be the commonwealth crown. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_(heraldry) I'm leaning towards the Netherlands.
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Feb 23, 2017 21:15
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Pretty sure it's a Belgian lion. That could be explained by the presence of the Belgian government in exile being headquartered in London and various military units organized and trained in the UK, or that Patton's Third Army marched through southern Belgium, or that Third Army had a number of Belgian military units attached to it. I'm seeing the same lion in the same pose on a lot of unit patches, but the crown is interesting. It also seems to match Belgian designs, but so far no overall matches.
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Feb 23, 2017 22:05
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The wreath is the Army's Meritorious Unit Award (which was replaced by the red ribbon in the gold border in the 1960s, but they had to wait until stocks of the old wreath badge ran out first). It was worn on the sleeve of the Class As.
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Feb 23, 2017 23:00
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Wow, thank you guys for all the information. I shared this with my wife and she was really appreciative of all of the info. Here is his DD214 and honorable discharge, showing that he was in the 106th AAA:   Here is his Purple Heart award letter:  And just becuase I think it was interesting, here is this:  One other thing - We have paperwork from when he applied for VA benefits and was denied. They said they could not find any record of medical treatment for his gunshot wound, nor was there evidence of him earning the Legion of Merit even though it is on his DD214.
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Feb 24, 2017 13:47
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Dang, your wife's grandfather lived like a mile from where my dad grew up.
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Feb 24, 2017 15:18
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Well then so do I 
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Feb 24, 2017 15:21
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I wish I learned how to make ice cream in school.
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Feb 24, 2017 16:20
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As you might expect, there's some contradictory and a lot of missing information online. I have no doubt the Army has actual records that would clear all of this up, or that it's also probably covered in a couple of books out there, based on those records. The big questions for me is where the 106th was really assigned during the French campaigns. According to internet people who claim to have researched their own family members that served with 106th AAA AW BN, it was assigned to the 45th Infantry Division. What I can't tell without digging up actual Army records (time consuming but interesting), is A-is that accurate? B-When was it assigned to 45ID and was it reassigned to another unit? If it was part of 45ID for the duration of the war, Gus was trading people for patches because 45ID was never part of XX Corps, as far as I can tell. That's the biggest inconsistency I can find. I'm not bothering to research who got that Meritorious Unit Award...but the 45ID was pretty badass and in the top 10 divisions for most days in combat in the European Theater. Third Army's units obviously did a lot, too, so probably half the divisions involved in these operations probably had that award. 45ID participated in the Italian campaign, landing in Sicily, Salerno, and Anzio before being pulled back to recuperate. Looks like Gus joined the 106th at that time (whether it was part of 45ID or not), after which 45ID landed in St Maxime, France in August 1944 as part of the US Seventh Army...that invasion was supposed to coincide with OVERLORD but there weren't enough landing craft for both, so DRAGOON (the southern invasion, near Toulon) was delayed. At this time, Patton's Third Army (which owned XX Corps, one of the patches you've got) entered combat following Omar Bradley's success in breaking out of Normandy (Op COBRA) and was blasting eastward and rolling the Germans back across France. Seventh Army pushed north and, a few days after Gus was wounded, linked up with Third Army in September, but they didn't combine into one organization. Seventh Army held the south flank of the American line during the Battle of the Bulge, and 45ID was seizing forts of the Maginot Line near Strasbourg (as part of XV Corps, still in Seventh Army). Strasbourg is about 100km SE of where XX Corps (that patch you've got) was at the time. This map shows Third Army and Seventh Army next to each other. From there, 45ID rolled east through the Siegfried Line and into Germany in March-April, liberating Dachau, then capturing and holding Munich until Germany surrendered. Here's the 106th's patch:  Still no idea about that lion patch, though. It could be French, but I can't find anything quite like it. Belgian patches are still the closest I've seen, but I can't find a match. Third Army (and thus XX Corps) was a bit closer to Belgium, but during the Battle of the Bulge they were all pretty close. There could've been a Belgian unit mixed in with either, and trading patches and whatnot is a time-honored tradition. Edit: There's a facebook group that's got some pictures and whatnot. Godholio fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Feb 24, 2017 |
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Feb 24, 2017 19:42
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Oh man, thank you SO MUCH. I told my wife that there was a chance that at least one of those patches might have been a trade (I have a couple sets of foreign dolphins from my sub days) and when her grandmother put all of his stuff together she just added those in because they were with his stuff. Not really worried anymore about the missing information - I know that the right personnelman can put whatever into your record and you can just buy any medal you want at the PX, but nothing I have heard about Gus leads me to believe he was like that. We just want to get a nice shadowbox made to go next to mine. We have his burial flag as well. He died when my wife was 5, so there was no chance at all for me to have met him, which I really hate. 
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Feb 24, 2017 20:07
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Chances are, everything's legit. He may have traded for a patch or two (I've got several foreign patches because gently caress YEAH) but I REALLY doubt anything on his records is inaccurate. Those guys were outprocessing literally millions of soldiers...they weren't wasting time trying to hook people up, and most guys leaving the army didn't give a poo poo about what medals they were getting. Whether he was under the Third or Seventh Army, those medals are not surprising. Those guys did a poo poo ton of fighting. Italy was hell, and so was some of Third Army's action in France. And the online people may have only posted part of the story. Most of them were discussing the Italian campaign, so 106th may have left 45ID at some point and become a part of a division in XX Corps. That's where the official records would help clean that up. It's probably going to take a FOIA request since they're not an active unit and probably nobody is maintaining a unit history of them anymore, but the Army does have that information and it's a public record. For that matter, you can request his complete military record if it survived the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center. Edit: You might be able to get info on units from those armies. Third Army is now US Army Central (the Army piece of CENTCOM), and Seventh Army is now US Army Europe. At that level, they employ professional historians. They may have archives, too, probably not down to the individual person level, but probably covering battalions. Godholio fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Feb 24, 2017 |
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Feb 24, 2017 20:19
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It's worth noting that the facility that stored the Army's records had a massive fire in the 70s and they lost no poo poo almost everything. So a request for records might turn up less than what you already have.
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Feb 24, 2017 23:54
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I hope no one minds if I add my own query to this, but I'm a volunteer with a local historical society in Columbus, Ohio, and we've got two collections of medals and patches that we don't quite know too much about. Where's the best place to go to find info on an individual's service record, if you aren't actually related to said individual? One of them was a guy who seems to have retired from the AF as a General, and he recieved a DFC, among other things, so I'm rather curious as to his background.
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Feb 25, 2017 20:45
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I wonder if in 60 years kids will be sorting through morale patches and wondering which unit was a Punisher skull with "Infidel" written in flames around the border.
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Feb 25, 2017 21:18
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 18:08 |
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Plastic_Gargoyle posted:I hope no one minds if I add my own query to this, but I'm a volunteer with a local historical society in Columbus, Ohio, and we've got two collections of medals and patches that we don't quite know too much about. Where's the best place to go to find info on an individual's service record, if you aren't actually related to said individual? One of them was a guy who seems to have retired from the AF as a General, and he recieved a DFC, among other things, so I'm rather curious as to his background. An AF general would be recent enough you can probably get some info from the internet. Otherwise, I'd poke around the AF Historical Research Agency's page. Frosted Flake posted:I wonder if in 60 years kids will be sorting through morale patches and wondering which unit was a Punisher skull with "Infidel" written in flames around the border. If humanity isn't raining down as fallout, yes.
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Feb 25, 2017 21:54
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