Doing research for the display at FDR in 2 weeks, and I found this video.
Neat World War II CBI Manual Find
Surfing the Net doing research for my Memorial Day display this year, and found this cool manual from the China Burma India Theater of Operations at https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4013coll8.
On the Fediverse
Memorial Day, 2024
https://www.fdrlibrary.org/events-calendar
Memorial Day Weekend Event:
World War II Military Displays
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Location: FDR Library Great LawnOn Saturday, May 25 and Sunday, May 26, 2024, in honor of Memorial Day Weekend, the Great Lawn in front of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum will take on the appearance of a World War II encampment with WWII Military Displays.
Period military vehicles of all sizes and soldiers in battle dress will be on hand to share their love of World War II history. Free public event.
The Duffle Bag and Associates, along with the American Veterans Historical Museum and a host of other living historians, are doing Memorial day again at FDR, sponsored by the library. I’ll be there, weather permitting, with a small display.
Normally I do a Cold War display at FDR, despite it being predominantly a World War II themed event. There are a few of us who do a post-1945 displays there. This year however marks the 80th Anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France, and my wife and younger daughter are planning on cosplaying Rosie the Riveter (their first time going in costume for this event), so I figured it would be a good idea to have a complementary costume. I don’t think, however, that I’ll be doing an ETO impression.
Despite the amount of media play that D-Day receives, there were also other pivotal events that happened elsewhere in June, 1944. Allied forces had captured Rome in the Mediterranean Theater on June 4th. June 5th was the first B-29 bombing mission, Operation Matterhorn, in the CBI theater. June was also the beginning of Operation Forager in the Pacific Theater.
Locally speaking, many National Guard and Reserve units in this area served in the Pacific or CBI Theaters. The 77th Infantry Division (USAR), 43rd Infantry Division (CTARNG et al), 27th Infantry Division (NYARNG), 118th Observation (now Airlift) Squadron (CTANG), and 333rd (now 131st) Fighter Squadron (MAANG) all served in the Pacific or CBI Theaters. Honorable mention goes to the 98th Infantry Division (USAR) that was slated for the cancelled Operation Olympic, and served occupation duty in Japan after the war.
Military Collectors Club Show Tomorrow
I’m sad to say that my friends at The Duffle Bag have decided to close down the retail store front at the end of the month for the time being, and go exclusively with online and show sales. They also however decided to expand to monthly shows based around a military collectors club, similar to the Bay State Militaria Collectors.
I’ll give a short presentation at the show tomorrow on military radio receivers for living history displays. For more information see https://www.facebook.com/thedufflebag.
A Work In Progress
Last November I set up a small display with a few fellow enthusiasts and historians at the Veterans Chow Down held by Guardian Revival.
I usually display Cold War era radio communications equipment, and while that gear was well represented this time around, I also added some helmets, ephemera, and insignia to the display. Among the artifacts were a few Vietnam War era shoulder sleeve insignia (SSI), and a circa 1971 plaque from the 1st Calvary Division, US Army that had images of various subordinate units’ distinctive insignia. The insignia in the display prompted a few conversations from Vietnam War veterans who recognized their outfit’s patch from back in the day, and were glad to see their old outfit represented.
Based on the feedback I received from attendees, and a desire to run as light as possible (no R-390s or R-1511s LOL!) I decided to put together some Riker mounts of Vietnam War SSI for a future display. I decided to use full-color merrowed SSI for the display as they are still common and relatively inexpensive for the most part. A collector should be able to put together this display at any decent old-school army/navy store. At present my go-to place is run by my friends Brian and Jeanie, the father/daughter duo of The Duffle Bag in Patterson, NY. That’s where I do the vast majority (about 90%) of my militaria shopping. I’ve been going there since the early 1980s when the store was known as The Militaria Mart in Brewster and then Carmel, NY. It was in fact Brian who steered me towards insignia when I started collecting military memorabilia in elementary school. The Duffle Bag is at present one of the oldest and sadly one of the last old-school Army/Navy stores left in the Hudson Valley, NY region.
I referred to my copy of the late Shelby Stanton’s Vietnam Order Of Battle. Stanton’s book is one of my go-to references. I discovered that I was most of the way towards having a complete collection of authorized, merrow-edged, full-color Vietnam War SSI. The missing insignia were procured down at The Duffle Bag, along with a large Riker mount. I started arranging the patches, and discovered I need a few more mounts to cleanly display the complete set.
First Row (Left to Right): 1st Armored Division, XXIV Corps, 2nd Armored Division, 196th Infantry Brigade, 11th Infantry Brigade, 199th Infantry Brigade, 198th Infantry Brigade, 1st Calvary Division.
Second Row (Left to Right): 18th Engineer Brigade, 20th Engineer Brigade, Capital Military Assistance Command, Criminal Investigation Division, 38th Infantry Division, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile/Air Assault), 18th Military Police Brigade, 11th Armored Calvary.
Third Row (Left to Right): US Army Special Forces, 124th Transportation Command, 5th Transportation Command, 125th Transportation Command, 82nd Airborne Division, 173rd Airborne Brigade, 4th Transportation Command, 44th Medical Brigade.
The infantry units will get separated into another Riker mount, possibly two of them if the arrangement looks crowded. The other units will be arranged in their own mount. I might also add a few twill cut-edge subdued SSI.
Full-color SSI were used on the green Army Dress Uniforms from World War 2 until 2015, and started again in 2018 with the retro-WW2 style uniform. Collectors are still finding NOS boxes of WW2 era SSI. Late 60s to present day merrow-edged SSI are common and you can buy them from 50 cents to a few dollars each depending on where you’re getting them, and which unit you’re buying. If you are a military history buff with an interest in collecting memorabilia, insignia is a good, inexpensive way to start that doesn’t take up much space. The World War 2 stuff is beginning to gain some serious value. Common patches are hitting the $10+ range compared to their cost back in the 80s and 90s. The more common late Cold War to present day stuff is still reasonably priced, and a good place to start.
The US Army Wikipedia entry shows an overview of branches of service and major units along with their respective insignia. If you delve into the individual unit wiki entries you will discover what subordinate units are part of the division/command/brigade/et al and see the unit crests (distinctive unit insignia) of the various regiments. Some of those regiments go back to the American Revolution. After collecting Vietnam War era SSI, you could work on regimental DUIs with Colonial American roots. You could also switch services and collect Navy ratings or Air Force unit patches. Yeah, there’s a lot you can get into, and that’s part of the fun. I’ve been collecting for over 40 years and am not even close to finished. Collecting military heraldry is truly a lifetime hobby.
News Release: FDR Home & Library Memorial Day Weekend Events Announced
Memorial Day is next weekend, and I’ll be displaying some Cold War communications equipment at the FDR Home and Library in Hyde Park, NY sponsored by my friends and fellow historians with The Duffle Bag & Associates. I’ve done this event since I moved back East, save for when it was cancelled due to COVID.
I previously set up static displays. This year will be different as I’ll have a military shortwave receiver listening to broadcasts, and I’ll be in on the air. I’ll have a Part 15 FM broadcast station, “WFDR,” on 99.5 MHz., and a 6 Meter Amateur Radio station on 51.0 MHz. FM with my PRC-25. Hopefully the band will be open. A couple of my fellow ham operators and historians will be on HF. Callsigns and frequencies will be posted on my Facebook feed.
If you’re within driving distance of FDR come visit. My fellow historians do an excellent job of putting this event together. We’re going to have the Big Band Sound Jazz Orchestra playing on Sunday, and other family events over the course of the weekend.
Patterson, NY Militaria Show April 22, 2023
Spending part of the day finishing my packing for my friends’ militaria show next weekend. I’ve got an excess of stuff, so I’ll have my usual corner table next to the bleachers.
So far I’ve got three Sterlites full of stuff. I’ll have some French & Indian and Revolutionary War books, military TMs, military electronics, and other items Here’s a sneak peak:
Patterson Militaria Show
APRIL 22, 2023
Militaria, & Knife Collector’s Show
https://www.thedufflebaginc.com/militaria-show
SHOW HOURS 9AM-3PM
Admission: $7.00 at the door.
(Children under 12 admitted free with paid adult).
Join the Duffle Bag Saturday, APRIL 22, for its annual Militaria, & Knife Collector’s Show at the Patterson Recreation Center.
Children under 12 admitted FREE with paid adult, so bring the entire family for a good old fashioned militaria show. Come and find vendors covering a broad range of vintage militaria for sale. Choose from military surplus, insignia, vintage clothing, custom knives, edged weapons, and firearm accessories.
Bring your military treasures and have Brian Benedict of the Duffle Bag appraise them for you.
The Patterson Recreation Center is a beautiful facility located in the rustic town of Patterson NY. FREE PARKING adjacent to the building in the well lit Metro-North
Railroad parking lot. The Patterson Recreation Center is one block from the Patterson Metro-North Railroad station. An easy drive from Interstates 84 and 684.
Memorial Day 2022
I missed the past two years for Memorial Day at FDR because of COVID. Things settled down enough this year that the National Archives and the National Park Service opened it up for my associates and I this year. This time around I planned for an even bigger display than in 2019.
A line of rain and thunderstorms came through Saturday, making that day a wash (no pun intended) for the most part. Sunday was much better. I didn’t make it Saturday because of the weather, but got there early Sunday morning and set my display up.
This year I displayed three tables of radio communications and electronics test equipment covering a time span from World War II to the Cold War eras. I also set up a Part 15 FM radio station, “WFDR,” on 99.5 MHz. that played some 1940s era music for a short while.
In this picture there is a Cold War era Soviet R-105m VHF transceiver, a PRC-25, PRC-75, PRC-74, WW2 Navy/Marine Corps TBY, WW2 R-156 sonobouy receiver, and WW2 BC-1000/SCR-300.
This picture shows an early WW2 Amateur Radio station consisting of a Hallicrafters SX-25 (which did see military use during WW2) and a Utah Junior HF CW transmitter, along with a reproduction foxhole radio using an old “blue blade” safety razor blade. Unfortunately I didn’t have the space to set up a decent antenna to run the foxhole radio. Two of next years’s goals include getting reception for the foxhole radio and getting a vintage Amateur Radio station on the air.
The bottom right shows a small collection of electronic test equipment. We have a radar IFF test set, oscilliscope, VOM meter, and RF SWR/power meter.
Two weekends ago was the local radio and communications museum’s swap meet. This is one of my regular events because I’m a member of the museum, and it’s only a 30 minute drive away on a Saturday morning. More often than not I’m also tailgating, which I did this past time. It was a good meet, although I did more trading than selling. Still though, I came home with less stuff than I arrived with, and a little more cash. The major acquisitions were a couple of WW2 aircraft command set radios which I have been getting into as of late, a 150 MHz. Tektronix 454 oscilloscope, and a WW2 vintage ABA-1 IFF transmitter/receiver which I discovered will go down into the 70cm ham band for AM and CW operation. The best part of the swap comes at the end of the day when the museum gives away whatever is left on their tables before dumpstering it. Going through the various boxes there were a few transformers and junk radio chassis that I gutted for some nice variable capacitors, and inductors. Not a bad haul.
Managed to get the workshop/lab a little more cleaned up and organized over the weekend. Put a little HF and VHF (6m and 2m) ham station on a table in the corner, but still need to put up antennas. I’ll be doing mostly CW on the old HF Novice sub-bands, and weak-signal on VHF. There are also a couple 2 meter FM simplex frequencies that see local use in addition to 146.52 MHz.
The Novice class ham license is a thing of the past with Technician being the new entry-level license for Amateur Radio. The Tech ticket is mostly VHF+ which in reality means the VHF/UHF bands at 1.2 GHz. and below. There is no off-the-shelf gear above 1.2 GHz., and I don’t think the average newly-minted Tech is going to homebrew any microwave weak signal gear despite being allowed to operate up there. Tech class ticket holders however do have some HF privileges. They can run sideband on 10 Meters between 28.300-28.500 MHz, and they can run CW on small portions of 80, 40, 15, and 10 Meters. Back in the analog TV days, a lot of hams would scrounge the 3.579 MHz. colorburst crystal out of an old TV set and set up on 80 Meters. There are still a few hams that do this today, the informal CW OP group called the Color Burst Liberation Army (CBLA).
Tom's Tech and History Blog 