Army Wwii Patches
In the movie "The Dirty Dozen" (1967) what US Army WWII patch is Lee Marvin's character wearing?
I am talking about the shoulder patch worn on the Army jacket or tunic. Lee Marvin's character was Major Reisman. I heard that he was supposed to be in the OSI but could not confirm this. The movie does not mention what outfit he was in. Hopefully there will be some WWII historians or war movie buffs out there that will know. Thanks
Major Reisman was (OSS office of Strategic Servicies).The patch is HQ ETOUSA COM Z=HQ European Theatre US Army Communication Zone. Organizesd Jan 1944.This was two HQ's merged into one command. The service of supply (white star) and Technical Servicies HQ ETOUSA (Lightning Bolts breaking chain). The OSS was not part of this command. It was under Joint chiefs of staff which had a myriad of stations thru-out the world and "task with to collect and analyse such strategic information as maybe required" and "plan & operate such special servicies as may be directed."
The OSS had an unofficial ,unauthorized and rarely worn patch if at all ,which USSOCOM (created in 1989 Mcdill AFB) design was based on. The patch was made (approx 195) given to William Donovan (OSS Chief) but not distributed these were destroyed however some were kept . See link below article by Les Hughes insigne.org