Historical Uniform Items

[alamrcn]

I've known about these, but had only seen drawings of them until just recently. Unfortunately I only currently have photos, but hopefully will be able to preserve some of them for real someday.















Missing is the WING COMMANDER tab.

These 3" x 7/16" title tabs were authorized in April 1942, and worn below the left shoulder patch. They are considered by many to have been Civil Air Patrol's first rank insignia. It is believed these patches were very short lived, as regular U.S. Army officer rank insignia was introduced to CAP in July 1942. The tabs soon after fell into disuse, however they were mentioned in CAP regulations as late as 1944.

[RiverAux]

CAP members were using rank from the very start of the organization and it would surprise me a great deal if they didn't start using standard insignia before then even if the regs didn't catch up until later. 

[alamrcn]

If you do have evidence any of Civil Air Patrol members who were not active duty or former military receiving AAC commisioned rank prior to the Summer of '42, please share.

So far, this is the information that the National HQ archives and publications have available. And of course most of that is from official publications and regulations.

I don't really consider these tittle tabs as "rank" myself. They are more akin to the other Civil Defense possition identifiers.

[Spike]

Blue and White seems strange......I would consider red patches/ badges perhaps but not blue and white.

Can you cite for us the regs that authorized these items?  I have never seen them before!

Also......Wasn't CAP the Army Air Force Auxiliary during WW2....not the AAC Aux?  There were no Commissions granted to CAP members, Army Officers were in charge.   

[AdAstra]

I consider these position titles, not rank. I recall that the one I have in collection is darker blue, but I'd have to go look.

All references I've seen refer to CAP officers with CAP grade from the very beginning of our existence. The National Commander and his staff were active duty AAC (pre-1943) or AAF officers, but Wing Commanders and below were CAP members with CAP grades. As today, these were CAP appointments (so read the copies I have in my collection), not military commissions.

As for the auxiliary status, searching thru the CAP archives at the AF Historical Research Agency, I've come across letterheads from the WWII years with several interesting variations of "An Auxiliary of the Army Air Corps," "The Auxiliary of the Army Air Force," etc. It was not made official until 1948, after the USAF was established.

[RiverAux]

Never said that they received AAC commissions, just that they were using ranks.  However, I will have to withdraw the implication that they were using them from day 1.  Flying Minutemen Appendix B lists several wing commanders without rank and notes that they served before CAP "Commissions" (their wording) were issued. 

[JohnKachenmeister]

The title strips were from when CAP was still under Civil Defense.  There was, at one time, a uniform designed for Civil Defense, but very few people had it.  The strips were designed to indicate leadership positions on either the uniform or a CD armband.  These leadership title strips were also used among other CD volunteers.

When CAP was armed and went looking for submarines with bombs, it had to be placed under the military and wear a military uniform.  Otherwise they could, under the Law of War, be considered "Partisans" and the Germans were not kind to partisans.

[RiverAux]

Kach, why do you keep saying that CAP members didn't wear uniforms until they transferred to the Army?  We've gone over this several times. 

Flying Minutemen page 23 says that we were in Army uniforms within 6 months of the founding of the organization.  That squares with information from my local newspapers that documents them receiving uniforms by May 1942.  We didn't go to the Army until April, 1943.

[RRLE]

I don't really consider these tittle tabs as "rank" myself. They are more akin to the other Civil Defense possition identifiers.

The WWII Citizens (aka Civilian) Defense Corps had rank. Each Enrolled Volunteer Service (Auxiliary Fireman, Air Raid Wardens etc) used these ranks, although each rank might have a different title. The ranks are described in a table in the back of each Handbook that each Enrolled Service had. I have a small but growing set of these Handbooks. The following is taken from the rank table on page 78 of the Handbook for Auxiliary Fireman published by the US Office of Civilian Defense December 1941. FWIW the Civil Air Patrol is no listed as one of the Enrolled Services in this book. The equivalent US Army rank is from the table also.

The insignia are triangles or stars. The book is black and white so the triangles and stars are either black or white in the book. I believe they were actually gold (shown as dark) or silver (shown as white). Since I'm not 100% certain of that I used the terms black and light in the text below. The titles of the rank are taken from the table. As noted they vary by Enrolled Service. The table shows that the Nurse's Aides Enrolled Service did not use rank. Each service's rank structure would end at different points. Not every service had the 1 light  triangle rank for example.

1 dark triangle: First Class (all) Army equiv= Pvt 1st Class
2 dark triangles: Senior/Sector Warden, Squad Leader, Team Leader, Unit Leader, Convoy Leader, Senior Messenger, Crew Leader, Army equiv = NCO (no specific rate given)
3 dark triangles: Zone Leader, Platoon Leader, Depot Leader, Squad Leader (could cause inter-service confusion), Station Leader, Service Leader, Army equiv = LT

1 light triangle: Group Leader, Company Leader, Unit Leader  (could cause inter-service confusion), Staff Unit Leader, Army equiv - Captain

2 light triangles: Chief Warden, Fire Chief, Chief of Police, Chief of E.M.S, Chief of Emergency Works, Chief Chief of Utilities, Controller (Local Staff), Army equiv = Major

3 light triangles: State Warden, State Fire Coordinator, State Medical Director, Commander (local staff), Army equiv = Colonel

1 dark star: no enrollled service had rank at this level or above. Coordinator (local staff - highest position for local staff), Asst Coordinator (state staff). Army equiv = Brig. Gen.

2 dark stars: Coordinator (state staff - highest state staff rank) Army equiv = Maj Gen

3 dark stars: Region Directors and Principal Assistants Army equiv = Lt Gen

4 dark stars: US Director, Army equiv = General

[biomed441]

On the CD topic, I came across this in a quick google search.

http://www.legeros.com/essays/cd/images/Image1459.gif

shows all the CD insignias. It shows the last three insignias with triangles below them in blue. Which my guess would be an example of their ranking system?

[RRLE]

That would be the rank insignia. And notice that CAP and its insignia/emblem are also shown.

[biomed441]

I thought so. I was hoping to find something in the way of more rank insignia examples during the time area. I'll try and get in touch with my grandfather. He was in CAP at the time and might remember some things.

[RRLE]

This link will bring up a 15 MB pdf file that is one of the WWII era Civil Defense Books. There is an insignia section that includes the chart I posted earlier.

[alamrcn]

Can you cite for us the regs that authorized these items?  I have never seen them before!

All I have is available is...
Civil Air Patrol Regulation 35-1, dated December 15, 1944
Section III, "Decorations, Awards, Etc."
Part 7, "Functional Insignia"

Here it describes the insignia in my original post. The gold-on-black "Service Emblems" (lower-left sleeve) and "Specialist Emblems" (lower-right sleeve) are also mentioned. Rank insignia as we are familiar with are not addressed in this regulation. The document is by order of Colonel Johnson, and prepared by William R Wilkinson, 1st Lt,  Air Corps, Adjutant.

Also...

General Memorandum #9, dated February 13, 1942:
describes "commisioned personnel" in a list of possitions similar to the insignia above. Several other General Memorandums around this time seem solely to clear up confusion and answer questions members had about vague and sparce "General Orders" from the War Department regarding their uniforms and insignia.

General Memorandum #45, dated July 17, 1942:
approaches "Insignia of Rank" for the first time, stating to wear regulation Army only with the red shoulder loops, and only with written appointment in grade by National Headquarters.

There was a LOT of confussion going on during the first 5 years regarding uniforms and insignia. Kinda reminds me a little of the LAST five years!

[James Shaw]

There is a uniform in my private collection that belonged to the first GAWG Commander that has the "Wing Commander" label on the sleeve. It is currently in storage "sold house and downsizing". The widow gace me the uniform several years ago along with pictures of him.

Lt. Col. Winship Nunnally

[JohnKachenmeister]

Kach, why do you keep saying that CAP members didn't wear uniforms until they transferred to the Army?  We've gone over this several times. 

Flying Minutemen page 23 says that we were in Army uniforms within 6 months of the founding of the organization.  That squares with information from my local newspapers that documents them receiving uniforms by May 1942.  We didn't go to the Army until April, 1943.

From "Global Missions", by H.H. Arnold, Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York 1947
Pages 301-302

"One time, a C.A.P. pilot saw a submarine cruising inside the shallow water area, but the sub paid no attention to the harmless little plane overhead. The pilot said he flew low enough to throw a rock or a wrench and hit the submarine, yet the U-boat in shallow water went moving along just like a cabin cruiser. When it was ready, the sub went out through a gap in the shoals and sank a ship.

I asked Gill Wilson if he thought the C.A.P. pilots, dressed in civilian clothes and having no military status, would object to carrying bombs on their puddle-jumpers. As usual, Wilson was enthusiastic and asked, "Where do we get them?"

Accordingly, I had special bomb racks built at one of our depots bomb racks that could be attached to these small planes in a very short time. We also built a cheap bombsight, and thereafter most of the C.A.P. planes carried bombs-fifty pounders the pilots could drop on the submarines, knowing full well that if they were taken prisoner in civilian clothes, they would not be considered part of our armed forces, but guerillas.

Before the C.A.P. had finished their task in the war, they had flown more than twenty-f our million miles, mostly in single-engine, small land planes, well out over the ocean. They also performed other tasks. They flew courier service; they towed targets for antiaircraft batteries; they tracked for searchlight crews; and they flew sentry duty along the Mexican border looking for spies. They spotted forest fires and helped put them out; they were used in time of emergency when there were floods or other disasters; they located one lost plane after another in mountainous and wooded terrain. In addition to all this, they furnished a reservoir of cadets and enlisted men for the Army Air Forces. They did a magnificent job all through the war, and they did sink some submarines."

From "Global Missions", by H.H. Arnold, Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York 1947
Pages 301-302

"One time, a C.A.P. pilot saw a submarine cruising inside the shallow water area, but the sub paid no attention to the harmless little plane overhead. The pilot said he flew low enough to throw a rock or a wrench and hit the submarine, yet the U-boat in shallow water went moving along just like a cabin cruiser. When it was ready, the sub went out through a gap in the shoals and sank a ship.

I asked Gill Wilson if he thought the C.A.P. pilots, dressed in civilian clothes and having no military status, would object to carrying bombs on their puddle-jumpers. As usual, Wilson was enthusiastic and asked, "Where do we get them?"

Accordingly, I had special bomb racks built at one of our depots bomb racks that could be attached to these small planes in a very short time. We also built a cheap bombsight, and thereafter most of the C.A.P. planes carried bombs-fifty pounders the pilots could drop on the submarines, knowing full well that if they were taken prisoner in civilian clothes, they would not be considered part of our armed forces, but guerillas.

Before the C.A.P. had finished their task in the war, they had flown more than twenty-f our million miles, mostly in single-engine, small land planes, well out over the ocean. They also performed other tasks. They flew courier service; they towed targets for antiaircraft batteries; they tracked for searchlight crews; and they flew sentry duty along the Mexican border looking for spies. They spotted forest fires and helped put them out; they were used in time of emergency when there were floods or other disasters; they located one lost plane after another in mountainous and wooded terrain. In addition to all this, they furnished a reservoir of cadets and enlisted men for the Army Air Forces. They did a magnificent job all through the war, and they did sink some submarines."

Not from me, but from General Hap Arnold himself.

And I have no idea why it copied twice.

[RiverAux]

Not from me, but from General Hap Arnold himself.

All that indicates is that he didn't know what was going on.  Like I said, there are many contemperanous records of CAP wearing uniforms before they were moved to the AF and Ace has cited other paperwork documenting rank insignia well before that time as well. 

Heck, there are several photos dated March 1942 in the new CAP history book of CAP pilots wearing uniforms. 

[jimmydeanno]

Not from me, but from General Hap Arnold himself.

All that indicates is that he didn't know what was going on.  Like I said, there are many contemperanous records of CAP wearing uniforms before they were moved to the AF and Ace has cited other paperwork documenting rank insignia well before that time as well. 

Heck, there are several photos dated March 1942 in the new CAP history book of CAP pilots wearing uniforms.

I have one of those historical documents from my squadron that makes an announcement in (around) April of 1942.  The announcement is uniform insignia availability and prices.  It includes pilot wings, etc.  Based on that, I would presume that we would be wearing uniforms by then, no?

[PlaneFlyr]

Can you cite for us the regs that authorized these items?  I have never seen them before!

They were also shown in Lee Regan's "The Collector's Catalog of Civil Air Patrol Insignia 1942-1985", section 7, page 61.  (Not a reg, but it's someplace else they're shown).

[JohnKachenmeister]

Not from me, but from General Hap Arnold himself.

All that indicates is that he didn't know what was going on.  Like I said, there are many contemperanous records of CAP wearing uniforms before they were moved to the AF and Ace has cited other paperwork documenting rank insignia well before that time as well. 

Heck, there are several photos dated March 1942 in the new CAP history book of CAP pilots wearing uniforms.

Hap Arnold... the Chief of the Air Corps, AND Gill Robb Wilson, the founder of CAP were BOTH out of the loop?