Paul R

Those are some great pieces! Congrats on finding the top two!

I received the GWOTE for my time over there. One gets to pick one or the other, for each deployment. Most that have been there twice have both. The GWOTSM is not awarded for deploying OCONUS.

Now that would be awesome! With some skill, something like that could be constructed.

Exactly. I dont think that these were made to deceive at all. I feel that they were made for Iraqi War vets from the current conflict as souvenirs. I was in the Marine Corps during the Desert Storm era and remember the Eagle Globe and Anchor emblem on the palm tree, and thinking how cool it was. I heard that they banned it's use at some point!

I agree!!! Great stuff! I love the Oberstleutnant and the Spiess set ups!! You have a fantastic collection of manniquins!

Now that is a rare piece of militaria! All you need now is a light weight blue LW tunic to put it on! You have the hard part done! Congratulations on aquiring an upper shelf item!

Quality stuff there!!! I love the WSP cap. IT is the first I have ever seen. Are you starting to change focuses now?

Hi! Welcome to the GMIC! I am away from my books, but I thought that I did see some drawings in one of the DDR publications. I would be skeptical myself, but the key manufactured component that makes me feel at ease about their existance is the collar tab. There is a little blurb on them here: http://www.grenzer.com/Unitsmain.htm There is an image of the hat, but not in photo.

Mark, Thank you for sharing this piece with us. This must be your signature piece!! Very beautiful and rare! Welcome to the GMIC!

I would get vol 1 next. Vol 3 pertains mainly to equipement and weapons. I will thumb through it again to be sure.

Outstanding!!! WOW! You must have some really deep connections to find such focused things.

Nice one!! I have never seen another with the cipher like that. I am surprised that he does not have any Police long service.

WOW!! That is a first for me. I have never seen an original DDR Bandsman uniform before. How are the swallow's nests applied? You should start a dedicated thread on that one! PLEASE!

Perhaps if you are lucky! :cheers:

Hi! I am sorry for the confusion. Lower Level Officials- There were intially two paygrades Feldwebel(Shoulder insignia with one pip/dark green collar tab with three triangular pips) Oberfeldwebel(Shoulder insignia with two pips/dark green collar tabs with four triangular pips) Later, a third paygrade was established Oberfeldwebel(Shoulder insignia with two pips/dark green collar tabs with four triangular pips over a wreath)- perhaps I was calling this a Hauptfeldwebel... I saw this somewhere but I cannot find it... This rank is higher than Oberfeldwebel, but the only difference in the rank insignia is the wreath under the pips on the collar tabs. I use more than one reference, so I will thumb through them all when I get a chance. The collar tabs were unpiped and the cables that made the shoulder boards were solid blue-gray in color. Meduim Level Officials only had one paygrade for NCOs: Oberfeldwebel- (Shoulder insignia with two pips/dark green collar tabs with four triangular pips over a wreath). The cables used to make the shoulder insingia were blue grey with the silver center cord. The collar tabs were piped with the twist (originally blue/silver and later dark green/silver) outer piping. I have not been able to go back and re-read my original posts, as it takes about 20 minutes for each screen to load up. I will re read and make any corrections. Thank you for pointing this out to me! This is a confusing topic, for me even(and I love this stuff). I want to make things as "painless" as possible.

Sorry it took so long to come back here. Getting onto this site at my current position is almost a miracle, due to bad internet connections. Anyway, I have pasted your post to a word file and will check my references after the work day to double confirm. If I am wrong, I will make the corrections and add a reply here, when I can. Thank you for pointing these out. Paul

I asked Roger Bender and Angolia that very question. I did not get an answer, but I can tell that it was a sore topic and did not proceed any further. I agree with your statement, but I HAD to have the book. Although I said that I would never pay that price for a book, I broke down and did so after a couple of years of asking questions that no one wanted to answer.

Can you please paste a link to the photo in question? I could very possibly be wrong.

I know! Trust me... I feel your pain. I have no idea as to why volume 2 is such a pain. I felt the same as you, but eventually just gritted my teeth and bought one from Ebay. It ended up costing me 293... based upon what I have seen others go for, I feel that I got a decent price. I bought it for the Admin/Sonderfuhrer section. Most others get it for the Fallschirmjager section.

Yep... the very Cutter I am on now is the very first to sport this weapon. She was just commissioned last year.

Hahahahahaha

It is priceless!! :cheers:

WOW!!! There were not too many of these men(estimated about 50). Nice score on the photograph. I concur completely with Gary's analysis! :jumping:

Thanks!! I have a bit of a softspot for the irregular tunics, like Officials.

No one has any Luftwaffe Officer candidate boards?