Military Unit History Request

[Aqualung]

My uncle who passed away last year served in the US Army between 1953 and 1955 stateside. He was drafted, but showed skills, abilities and aptitude (the men of my my family are real and true geniuses...must have skipped me, ;)) to end up stationed at White Sands in the 10th Ordnance Battalion. Without getting too much into detail he (his words) "worked with the atomic bombs".

That's really all I knew until I was working to liquidate his estate and found some of his Army paperwork, a photo of him in his uniform and even his unit patch from when he was in the infantry (patch shown in his photo).

However, he talked about how he was transferred in '54 to White Sands to a new unit that was starting up, which based on his DD-214 was the 10th Ordnance Battalion. What little I found about that unit is that the unit was formed in '54 and that it did, in fact, work with the atomic weapons.

I have my uncle's photo with his uniform showing the 31st Infantry patch on his shoulder and a patch for that unit, which is similar to this:

However, I'm looking for a patch for the 10th Ordnance Battalion as well. I have a pin of that unit's crest, but I'd like a patch as well. The unit crest looks like this:

I'm guessing there is a patch that would have been worn on a soldier's left shoulder for that, unless they didn't show it due to the super-secret nature of their responsibilities? That's the rest of the gist of my request is for any information about the unit or if someone has any experience with the unit. There's not much online that I could find, and I suspect it's because of the secret nature of the unit.

Mainly, I'd like a patch because I'm trying to put together a shadow-box display of my uncle's burial flag, photo, dogtags and unit patches.

Any info would be appreciated,

Thanks in advance.

Aqualung

 

[Yaworski]

https://www.usarmygermany.com/Sont....many.com/units/ordnance/USAREUR_71stOrdGp.htm

 

[Aqualung]

@Yaworski , thanks for the info about the unit. It tells me what the unit did after he got out in '55.

That's pretty cool to know since his brother was stationed in Germany while he was in and might have transferred over if he'd stayed in.

He did talk about how he'd had the opportunity to extend and become a helicopter pilot and he declined. Upon reflection, he said that it would have made him a chopper pilot going into Vietnam and we saw how that turned out for a lot of guys.

Aqualung

 

[Johnnu2]

I declined that very same "opportunity" and chose to fly my Navy Flying Club Cessna around Chesapeake Bay instead.

J.

 

[XUSNORDIE]

"Geniuses" and "Ordnance" mentioned in the same paragraph in a positive light :unsure:.....that doesn't happen very often. :p

 

[Fox Mike]

The Unit crest you have is the 10th Ord Bn. The shoulder patch would have been whatever their higher headquarters was. Appears the 10th was part of the 31 Infantry Division.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/31st_Infantry_Division_(United_States)

 

[Johnny-Baseball]

My USAF unit was known as the "nuke-sniffers." We, too, had a unique unit "patch" to designate our outfit (1035th Tech Ops Squadron, which is now AFTAC - Air Force Tactical Applications Center - and reports to the 16th Cyber Command). But we were instructed to never wear that unit patch on our fatigues or uniforms to prevent outsiders' curiosity about our classified missions.

In my day, 1035th guys were mostly enlistees with "max scores" on their AFQTs, and almost all of us had two or more years of engineering, physics or math in college before enlistment. The unit's mission was, at the time, classified T/S...so all enlistees were "drafted" into the outfit...no volunteers.

Today, AFTAC works hand-in-glove with the new Space Force. AFTAC's enlisted personnel comprise enlistees who are concurrently pursuing college engineering or physics degrees (both bachelors and masters) plus PhDs with engineering and Physics backgrounds. ALL unit personnel must initially attend a set of lengthy tech schools which, upon completion, awards the airmen with 75 hours of college credit towards their degrees. The Unit pays for all undergraduate and graduate college tuition. The PhD enlistees get special pay (more like an O-3), but all other enlistees are paid just like all other airmen.

AFTAC performs a series of really interesting jobs, but post-separation, new alums find it difficult to obtain employment because they cannot disclose the details of AFTAC's highly classified missions. AFTAC helps here - they recommend alums to contact employers who are knowledgeable about AFTAC's mission and specialties. My AFTAC-alum buddies joke that they, like Doc Brown in the movie Back to the Future, DO in fact know how to use a mass spectrometer.

 

[usmc69]

"Geniuses" and "Ordnance" mentioned in the same paragraph in a positive light :unsure:.....that doesn't happen very often. :p

You are correct in that statement. I the A6 community, we call the Ordnance Shop the "Rock Shop". Lots of good folks there. Our schools were co-located at NAS Jacksonville. I was an AE (Tweet) and they were AO's (Rocks). Have helped hernia bar quite a few MK 82's on to MER's.

 

[XUSNORDIE]

You are correct in that statement. I the A6 community, we call the Ordnance Shop the "Rock Shop". Lots of good folks there. Our schools were co-located at NAS Jacksonville. I was an AE (Tweet) and they were AO's (Rocks). Have helped hernia bar quite a few MK 82's on to MER's.

Yep we were called "rocks". The AO detailer had a communication with open billets....it was called "Red Rock Corner". Didn't need much brain power to be an Ordie....just muscle and good grip ;)

Back in my time Aviation A Schools were in Millington TN. Jarheads and Squids meshed together in class. Made for an interesting class. Especially marching together during EBAT! LGB Assembly Course, SAMI School, PSR Course, JEST and a ton of others I attended were a mix also. Worked with and made a lot of good jarhead friends in the Ordnance community. AOs will be AOs whether USMC or USN. It was a tight brotherhood. After all....IYAOYAS!

MERS and TERS!....aching backs. I went Fighter (F14) but we often did OJT/Sign Offs with A6/F18 Ordies, and they did the same. Wasn't mandatory but was helpful on advancement exams/warfare pin boards. Only Ordies were allowed to load/download when I was a squadron type...but wouldn't you know those AD's would always ask for help when hanging external tanks onto MXUs!