WWII Paratrooper Uniform Group
APPRAISER:
Tell me about what your dad did in World War II.
GUEST:
He was a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne.
APPRAISER:
These items have been in your family, then?
GUEST:
Ever since 1944.
APPRAISER:
The way to read a World War II uniform is in the insignia. This particular uniform has the oval of the 507th parachute infantry, I believe. Was that his outfit?
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
He's got his jump wings with one bronze star in there, indicating that he did make a combat jump. His Army good conduct medal, his ETO campaign, his American campaign and World War II victory are on there also. And he was in combat long enough to earn a combat infantryman badge. The 507th was a D-Day unit. They jumped into D-Day. Did he mention if he participated in that at all?
GUEST:
He didn't jump D-Day.
APPRAISER:
And we see that here too because there's no arrowhead on his medal. That's the device that they put on there for individuals who participated in an invasion. The 507th, a number of them were pulled out of the line, and then they became cadre for this other outfit, which is the 13th Airborne. The 13th Airborne did not make any combat jumps in Europe, but yet, this man did. So at some point, he went back over to another unit. And they ended up jumping in Operation Market Garden in Holland. And we know that he participated in that because he has the orange lanyard that was given to the Airborne outfits that participated in Market Garden. We've got the uniform here, which is his Ike jacket. And then he also brought home his parachutist uniform. That one is in kind of rough condition, frankly. But that's what we like to call good wear, as opposed to "I wore it out planting potatoes after the war" kind of wear. So that's the kind of stuff that doesn't really hurt value to a collector. An identified World War II paratrooper group with his paratrooper jump boots, you're looking at a retail value today in the neighborhood of $3,500 to $4,000.
GUEST:
Oh, cool. All right. I wouldn't have guessed that at all.
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