An original World War Two US Army Jacket, Field, Wool, OD, the M1944 pattern universally known as the Ike jacket, contract dated 19 December 1944 to Asinof & Sons Mfg. Co. under the Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot. Size 36R, named Schuette on the label inside, and fully insignia’d to an Infantry branch Technician Fifth Grade of the Seventh Army with a Communications Zone combat patch, five overseas service bars and a three place ribbon bar.

Take the shoulders first. On the left is the shoulder sleeve insignia of the Seventh United States Army, approved 23 June 1943: a seven stepped letter A, the steps in yellow with the center in scarlet, on a blue triangle. The seven steps are the number, and they are also the advance northward. The Seventh Army was activated on 10 July 1943 by redesignating I Armored Corps, and it went ashore that same day as the American spearhead of Operation Husky under George Patton, taking Palermo on 22 July and Messina on 16 August. Under Alexander Patch it invaded southern France on 15 August 1944 in Operation Dragoon, freed Marseille, Toulon and Lyon, and covered four hundred miles north in a month to join hands with the armies coming down from Normandy. It fought through the Vosges into Alsace, held against the German New Year offensive of Operation Nordwind, closed the Colmar Pocket with the French in February 1945, crossed the Rhine in Operation Undertone that March, took Nuremberg and Munich, and was over the Brenner Pass into Italy by 4 May 1945.

On the right shoulder is the combat patch, worn for former wartime service, and it belongs to the Communications Zone, European Theater of Operations. The design rewards a proper reading. The blue five pointed star on a white six lobed field is the emblem of the Army Service Forces. The gold chain and its broken link come from the ETOUSA device, and they stand for the Allies breaking the chains of Nazi oppression. Com Z was the theater’s entire logistical body, ten geographic sections and their commands, the organization that ran the ports, depots and railheads, the hospitals and blood banks, the fuel, the ordnance and the pay, and that put the Red Ball Express on the road to keep the armored columns moving. Armies are remembered for the ground they take. Com Z is the reason there was anything to take it with.

The lapel disc is crossed rifles, the branch insignia of the Infantry, and that pairing with a Com Z patch is worth a moment. Infantry branched men were assigned throughout the theater’s service organizations, and the traffic ran the other way too. After the Ardennes bled the rifle companies white in the winter of 1944 and 1945, the Army combed the Communications Zone for bodies and retrained service troops as riflemen to fill the line. A jacket carrying crossed rifles, a Com Z combat patch and a Seventh Army patch sits precisely at that intersection.

The sleeves and chest finish the man. Two chevrons above a T on both arms make him a Technician Fifth Grade, the specialist grade that carried a corporal’s pay and the technical trade a modern army ran on. On the left forearm are five overseas service bars, one for every six months outside the United States, which is thirty months abroad and places him in theater from 1943, well before the landings in France. Below them is a single service stripe for three years of service.

The ribbon bar reads left to right as the Good Conduct Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with two bronze campaign stars, and the World War II Victory Medal. The Good Conduct Medal, established in 1941, went to enlisted men for exemplary conduct, efficiency and fidelity across a qualifying period of active service. The campaign ribbon is a map in cloth: brown for the ground fought over, the green, white and red of Italy at one end, and the blue, white and red shared by the United States, Britain and France. Each bronze star on it is credit for one designated campaign, so this man was carried on the rolls for two. The Victory Medal went to everyone who served between 7 December 1941 and 31 December 1946.

Above the right breast pocket is the Honorable Service Emblem, the gold eagle in an olive drab diamond that soldiers called the ruptured duck, issued at discharge so a man could keep wearing his uniform for thirty days on the way home without being taken for a deserter. It is sewn where it belongs, which tells you this jacket came home on his back and was put away as he wore it out the gate.

The garment itself is a piece of history. Eisenhower wanted his soldiers in something like the British battledress blouse, short, warm, smart enough for garrison and practical enough for the field, and the wool field jacket that resulted carried his name for the rest of time. The label shows a pattern date of 10 May 1944 and a contract date of 19 December 1944, three days after the Germans opened the Ardennes offensive. It also reads Q.M.C. Tent. Spec., a tentative specification, meaning the Quartermaster Corps had this jacket in production before the specification was even finalized. That is what the last winter of the war looked like from the manufacturing end.

Complete, honest, named ETO enlisted jackets with a combat patch, a full run of overseas bars, the ribbon bar and the discharge emblem all still in place are the ones that anchor a display case. Nothing here has been added or rearranged.

CONDITION AND DETAILS

Size 36R per the label, a 36 inch chest in regular length, roughly a modern men’s small
Named Schuette in ink on the contract label
Stock No. 55-J-384-595
Asinof & Sons Mfg. Co., P.O. No. 8723, dated 19 December 1944
Pattern date 10 May 1944, Q.M.C. Tentative Specification, P.Q.D. No. 437, Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot
Olive drab wool, sound throughout with good color and nap, no significant moth damage
Seventh Army insignia on the left shoulder, firmly sewn, colors bright
Communications Zone ETO combat patch on the right shoulder, firmly sewn, colors bright
Technician Fifth Grade chevrons on both sleeves, secure, with light nap wear to the wool
Five overseas service bars and one service stripe on the left forearm, all secure
Honorable Service Emblem present above the right breast pocket, secure
Three place ribbon bar present and secure: Good Conduct Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with two bronze campaign stars, World War II Victory Medal
Brass Infantry collar disc with crossed rifles and brass U.S. national disc, both present and secure
No Combat Infantryman Badge present
All front buttons, epaulette buttons, cuff tab buttons and pocket flap buttons present
Both waist adjustment tabs present with buckles intact
Both patch pockets and flaps sound
Contract label complete, fully legible, with the handwritten name intact
No holes, tears, repairs or alterations noted

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