Combat Patches

I've called this piece, "Combat Patches," because once you've been to a war zone, you're entitled to wear the patch of the unit you served with on your right shoulder.  The patch of your current unit goes on your left shoulder.  In all of these pictures, the soldiers have turned there right sleeves to the camera to show that they are combat veterans.

The fact that the uniforms don't have name tapes on them tells me that this is pre- 1955.  These pictures could have been taken during the Korean War, but I suspect that most of these men saw action during WWII.

These pictures were filed in a box under, "military recruiters."  Just the fact that they were part of the Simmons Studio collection of negatives makes me think that they are photographs of local men, but I don't recognize any of the people or the building and only one of the patches.

This old soldier is a bird colonel in an infantry unit.  I can't see the combat patch on his right shoulder very well. I stopped in at the local National Guard armory and they couldn't help me.

If he were in an infantry unit in the MO Army National Guard, then he would, more than likely, have been member of the 35th Infantry Division which saw action in Europe during WWII.  Here's the combat patch he would have been wearing. 

This next fellow is easier to figure out:

His easy-to-identify 7th Army patch tells me that he served with General George Patton across North Africa and then pushed into Sicily and finally forced marched across France to meet the enemy and push him back into Germany. 

Here's the same two men with some other combat veterans.

They might all be part of the recruiting staff. They seem to be standing in a military facility.  The only facility of that type in Warrensburg would be the local National Guard building, but it doesn't have a balcony.  Maybe this is an inside view of Warrensburg's National Guard building that burned down in the early 50s.

Here's our 7th Army vet welcoming new members into the unit:

Finally, here's a line of recruits who haven't received their uniforms yet.  Although they are in civilian clothing, some of them may have already served in the active military and are coming back in as National Guard members.

If anyone recognizes the people or the building in any of these photos, please let me know.  Also, if you have any more information about the history of the patches or of the units depicted here, please leave a comment.