Okay there group. I have a 7th Army uniform (Complete Class A) The rank is Corporal. Here is my question. When would someone, especially the rank of a corporal wear the 7th Army patch? Would this person be attahced to a HQ part or what? I'm not sure how all this works. Also, with someone with this patch, what would be the unit crest worn on the class A? I would like to complete this uniform for a nice display piece.

Thanks!

Well guess where I'm confused is, usually you wore the patch of the company/group or whatever you were in. like the 45th was under the 7th Army at one time and the wore their patch (the 45th). I know the high brass that was in charge of the whole 7th wore the 7th patch. Would a guy wearing the 7th patch be parts of an infantry unit? I figured it they were part of an infantry unit, they would wear the appropriate patch of whatever unit.

Sorry, probably sounds confusing what I'm saying......

Nick:

My daddy wore the 7th Army patch as did Al. My dad was a combat engineer. Made no difference that they were infantry as opposed to engineers. My dad was a T5 (tech 5), which is equiv to the rank of corporal.

If you were in the 7th Army, you were IN THE 7TH ARMY.

Nick:

In front of me right now, I have an actual Ike jacket that I wear. In this case it has the 2nd Corps patch, a 7th Army patch and the stripes of a T5. That is standard. In this case it belongs to a 48th Combat Eng.

Here's my Ike jacket Nick.

There's a 7th Army uniform on this page:

http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-unifor.../american-a.htm

There were many supporting units within an ARMY that were not assigned to Division. A good example would be Marion's uniform for an Engineer unit.

THE division patch was worn on the left shoulder and the Army patch on the right shoulder.

The unit patch was worn on the LEFT shoulder. This is illustrated in the Basic Field Manual FM 21-100 Soldier's Handbook. The patch worn on the RIGHT shoulder was one from of his previous assignment.

Also, with someone with this patch, what would be the unit crest worn on the class A?

The unit crest or Distinguishing Unit Insignia was authorized for wear on the lower lapels and also on the overseas cap in lieu of the "US" disc. However, many units did not have a DUI. I've been browsing eBay for DUI's to buy. Some are not WW2 issue. They units may have existed after the war and the DUI pins were authorized then but for some the pin was never worn.

I've bought 2 examples of DUI pins for my Dad artillery battalion but I've only seen one photo of a soldier wearing it.

Before a DUI could be officially worn, the design had to be approved by the US Army. During the peak of the war, they stopped approving new designs.

I have bought a few examples of DUI's for Infantry Division(that resemble the shoulder patch) and several DUIs for the 5th Army.

Theoretically, you could use a DUI of the 7th Army. But did they wear these during the war? I kinda doubt it. Again, I haven't seen many photos of officers or enlisted wearing a DUI for their Division or their Army.

Most of the Class A uniforms and IKE jackets seem to have only the branch disc and the US disc. I bought one uniform that had 2 branch discs mounted on the lapels below 2 US discs. I didn't like the looks of that and so I "fixed" it. But if that is how he wore it, I guess I should leave it as it was.

Steve

Portion of Photo of Company B, 310th Engineers (85th Infantry Division)

Photo was taken during basic training, so I don't expect to see much patches or ribbons. On left front row are 3 officers. Then next to them is a Staff Sgt with no collar insignia at all. Third row has 4 GI's with no insignia and more the further up you look. Also note some wear a DUI on the cap, some maybe a US disc and some with nothing. It is difficult to see but it appears the no one is wearing a Division shoulder patch.