The 503d never had an official regimental shoulder patch and they
still do not for that matter.
Infantry regiments are not authorized them. They may wear distinctive
metal regimental badges on the epaulets but during WWII there was no 503d
regimental insignia of this sort.
Some 503d people wore a two color [the 503d colors were navy blue border
and grey field] oval cloth device behind the parachute qualification
badge.
If
the 503rd WWII trooper were to wear an authorized patch it technically
would be the patch of the unit [i.e. field army, corps, division]
authorized a patch that the 503d was assigned to. At one time or another
the 503rd regiment and later the regimental combat team was assigned to
Sixth Army, Eighth Army, XI Corps,40th Infantry Division during WWII. If a
patch were to be worn, technically it would be the patch of one of these
units the 503d was assigned to.
The practical effect of this policy was that during WWII none of these
patches were worn on the sleeve by the 503d. That didn't stop some 503d
soldiers from wearing the unauthorized Tiger patch however on the
sleeve. The Rock patch with the eagle etc. was probably not
available before the war ended.
For the most part, I agree with what you have written, Don.
What I don't know is, did any of the 503 people wear the wildcat
patch on their blouse sleeve when you were at Bragg? I notice Ben Guthrie
had one sewn on his blouse in the post-war picture on his book's jacket.
This leads me to suspect the 503 cat patch was worn at times
on the Class A's. The cat and the eagle patches were never authorized to
be worn.
The only time I remember wearing Class A's was [1] during my brief stay
at Gordonvale [October 1943] in the 503d while on off-duty jaunts [2] on
parade at Noemfoor on 23 October 1944, and [3] on parade at the surrender
ceremony at Mabini, Negros Occidental on 4 September 1945. At no time did
I ever see a patch of any kind worn by anyone at these events and places.
I had a cat patch sewn on my flight jacket [issued to officers only]
but never on my blouse. The current unit patch is worn on the left
sleeve. You could wear your WWII unit patch on your right sleeve of you
wished. I have no idea what they do now however but I can say wearing two
patches [WWII and current] was de rigueur at least until I left the
US Army to fend for itself in 1969. I must confess I sported the 503d
patch often enough on my right sleeve after the war. I used the several
hand embroidered 503d totally unauthorized patches I bought in Japan. They
weren't too well done but they were good enough to send the message
clearly that I once jumped with rhe 503.
ttfnj.
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