Paratrooper pin and Desert Fossils

[ziphius]

I did a little road trip out to Octotillo on New Year's Day and thought I would combine fossil-hunting with detecting. I found the pin as I was hiking down a side canyon, buried about 5 inches in the sand. It has some damage and was pretty bent up when I found it - almost looks like some took a shot at it. The back of the pin says MLP - G.I. and 1/20 S.F. I think I've seen one of these before on the forum and if anyone has any information on these, let me know. Happy New Year everyone.

ziphius

 

[awhitster]

That is an awesome find. It is a WW2 Paratrooper pin. Here is a link to one on Ebay. These were worn by men of the 82nd, 101st, 11th, and other Airborne Division during World War II. Basic parachutist qualification badge. Some were sterling silver. Pin On Ebay

 

[Uncle Willy]

Looks like an Army Airborne insignia. Is it brass? How is Ocotillo these days? Haven't been there in 137 years. My inlaws ride their dune buggies and bikes out there a lot.

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah that should be a collectors item. A little research might uncover that a training area and or base existed there during WWII. A lot of bases were built in the California deserts then and when the war was over they bulldozed most of them down and buried all the equipment right on the spot. Lot of stuff buried out there. Hard telling what one could find out there.

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

In 1942 they built the largest military training center in the world in the California Desert that covered three states and 18,000 square miles. I.8 million soldiers were trained there and it was run by George S. Patton before he left for greater fame. Go to Google and type in California Desert Training Center. There is tons of stuff out there. The old war movie "Sahara" with Humphrey Bogart was filmed there.

Bill

 

[ziphius]

Ocotillo is still a sleepy little place, popular with off-roaders. If folks aren't off-roading, then they are fossil hunting. I think the pin is brass, based on the signal similarity on the Ace 250 to brass casings I was finding everywhere and the coloration on the back of the pin that was exposed when I unbent one of the wings. That would be really cool if it were WWII era. I've heard that Patton operated mainly in the Octotillo Wells area, which is NW of this site, but who knows how far the exercises may have ranged? I've noticed a few these pins, with variations on the theme, for sale on the internet. Thanks again for the input guys. - Jim

 

[ziphius]

The Ebay posting of the same pin states silver filled for S.F. I was thinking the obvious: San Francisco, perhaps where the pin was made.

 

[cwilk]

Those fractions are common on higher quality gold plated objects. It usually means the object contains at least 1/20th (5 percent) gold of some other metal. Could the letter "s" be part of a letter "g"? I acquired a box of military items from WW2 a while back and there was a pair of Captain's Wings that were marked 1/20 14k g.f. Included in that box were lots of different enlisted Army Air Corps wings including bombardier, engineer, gunner. All were sterling. I sold a bunch of duplicate items in that box on Ebay for over 1000 bucks and still have a lot of it left. Collectors gobble that stuff up.

Great find no matter what it's made of. Would be a favorite of mine had I stumbled upon it!

Chris

 

[ziphius]

The 1/20 S.F. is definitely an "S", but you are right, no matter what it is composed of, I'm happy to have found it!

 

[rmptr]

Well that was the thing about Patton, wasn't it?

Never could keep him pinned down to one spot!

Nice finds...

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah that training base covered 18,000 square miles so where you found the pin is probably right in it. Hard telling what you could uncover there.

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah he was hard to hold.

Bill