Uniform Patches, Pins, Medals Worn By Glider Pilots

The glider pilot wings with the G on the shield, a refinement of the power pilot wing, has become a symbol for the work being done in uncovering and preserving the history of this large, once ignored and under appreciated group of aviators. Other soldiers worn the patches, medals and other symbols shown here and in earlier posts; only a special group of aviators wore the glider wings.

A good summary of their unique missions can be found at the web sites for the Silent Wings Museum and the WWII Glider Pilot Association noted under the blog banner.

The golden eagle was worn on Sylvan's dress uniform hat. However, on the blog banner photo above you see that Sylvan wears power wings on his hat. The photo was taken soon after he graduated from Advanced Flight School. I was told it was not exactly proper for glider pilots to wear this officer insignia, since they were warrant grade officers, but no one minded if they did.
It was entirely common for glider pilots, especially the ones trained early in the war, to co-pilot C-47s and to fly small planes.

The patches worn on the airman's sleeve can be bought at any museum gift store today. The ones you see here are the real thing, once worn by a WWII member of the 316th Troop Carrier Group! Note the bars for the Air Medal and ETO ribbon. Prior posts give their full import.

Five Star Mother Flag

This small flag placed in my grandmother's window makes me thing the small pin
with blue stars, previously displayed, was worn by Sylvan because there were four brothers serving. Normally, the gold star, indicating a son killed in the war, would be placed over a blue star. In this case, Sylvan's youngest brother, still in high school, joined the army, so she placed the gold star to one side.
His brothers, Bernard, Lanny, Delphis, in the service at the time of his death, send letters home which are printed in this blog. Their service records are noted.

Medals Earned by Glider Pilots, Distinguished Unit Citation

The pin, a small blue rectangle, for the Distinguished Unit Citation, as it was called in World War II, is not shown in this view of my glider pilot uncle's uniform decorations. It was awarded to units of the United States Army and the allies for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy in such a way as to set the unit apart from other units.

I believe Sylvan Lucier would have two and perhaps three Distinguished Unit Citations because he saw action in three Troop Carrier Groups at the very time they earned this award; the 313 for Sicily, the 438th for Normandy, and the 316th for Holland. The pin would be about the same size as the bars shown above and somewhat unimpressive in appearance, but hugely important. The degree of heroism required is comparable to the Air Force Cross or the Navy Cross. I have read about this Citation in a number of books about the units Sylvan serve in. He was stationed in Africa with the 313th group preparing for the invasion but his squadron's gliders were taken over by the British glider pilots. Thus Sylvan's 49th squadron (313th) did not fly the Husky (Sicilian) missions but were soon stationed in Sicily to support the invasion continuing in Italy.

The tiny wings with the propeller were earned when my uncle became a power pilot early in his training. The star in a circle are shown on the left label of Sylvan's dress uniform. I'm not sure what it indicates.

The red bordered rectangle with four stars, and the smaller one with one gold star, are something I can only guess. They may have been given by the government to my grandmother who had four sons in the war. Or perhaps Sylvan wore the four star pin on his dress uniform. The four stars remind me of a keepsake I have, called "the Mother's Flag", shown in a family's front window during WWII. My Lucier family flag has four blue stars for the four sons that served at one time, with a gold star pinned off to one side. If a mother lost a son, the gold star was pinned over one blue star. In Eva Lucier's case, she pinned it to one side because her youngest son, still in High School, joined the Army as soon as his brother died.

Sylvan had glider wings of course and I have to scan them and post it later. I will also post the picture of the small (6" by 8") Five Star Mother flag, one of the most poignant items in the collection.

Medals Earned by Glider Pilots, Orange Lanyard

The Orange Lanyard of the Royal Netherlands Army. This is the highest award for valor awarded by the Netherlands Government during WWII. It is the Militaire Willems Orde Degree of Knight of the Fourth Class. Due to an oversight by the Airborne and the Army Air Corps, it took 38 years and the efforts of the WWII Glider Pilot Association to correct the error. It was presented at the National Reunion in Reno, Nevada in 1982, by the Netherlands Military Attache on behalf or her Majesty, the Queen of the Netherlands.

George Theis, Treasurer of the National WWII Glider Pilot Association, recently sent me this award given by the Government of Holland, because he knows I want every fact documented about my uncle's participation in the war and what his sacrifice meant to other. The lanyard came with a card attached:

The Orange Lanyard is presented to the Glider Pilots of the IX Army Air Force Troop Carrier Command in recognition of their participation in the airborne operations and subsequent combat actions of Operation Market Garden.

Medals Earned by Glider Pilots, Air Medal

I can thank our friend Chuck Foreman, Wing I Commander of the National World War II Glider Pilots Association, for gifted me with this beautiful medal that I had sought on Sylvan Lucier's behalf for quite some years! My husband and I spent time with Chuck and glider pilot Don Manke at the Pima Air Museum a year ago when he promised to obtain it for me.

I found the small gold and blue bar in my grandmother's box. It is possible the medal went missing before I received the memorabilia but I doubt that. When an awards ceremony was staged following a mission, government written orders were given with names listed. I don't know if the medal itself, or just a letter confirming the medal was handed out.

In Sylvan's case, he had died before the tiny Oak Leaf Cluster (indicating a Second Air Medal) could be given to him. Although Sylvan was stationed in Africa in 1943, preparing for an invasion of Sicily, I'm told he was not listed as a pilot or co-pilot in that mission. He would have done a lot of flying later in Sicily, was transferred to the 36th Squadron of the 316th group, and left for England in late March, 1944. So the First Air Medal could not be from the Husky (Sicilian) mission.

A document given me by 316 TCG Historian Mike Ingresano, provided proof that Sylvan was given his first Air Medal for flying a Horsa glider on D-Day in Normandy, while assigned to the 88 Squadron. I also have the document of glider pilot from the 316th group on Temporary Duty to the 88th. In a search the 88th Squadron War Diaries I found no list of glider pilots receiving an air medal. They had returned to their own group in early August, and I think air medals would have been presented by then. Once again, the frequently reassigned glider pilots are left out of reports.

In this photo I have placed the new air medal and the older bar from Sylvan's uniform on a white tea napkin embroidered by my mother in her youth. There is a tiny oak leaf cluster (which was given when the pilot earns a second air medal) on the bar as well as the ribbon now. I think there were glider pilots who earned four air medals (Normandy, Southern France, Holland and the Rhine crossing) but probably not five.

Medals Earned by Glider Pilots, ETO Ribbon

When I began my research into my uncle Sylvan's time as glider pilot I had my grandmother's scrapbook of letters, photos and official papers, a few saved items like the flag from his coffin, and a small box of medals. For some reason, understanding the small pins my glider glider pilot wore was one of my first pursuits. They were a mystery to most people, even those in the research areas of aviation museums. The easy one to identify was the ETO medal with the Africa/Europe colors on the bar. But I had only the colored bar with three little stars on it. When we visited the Utah Beach museum in June 2008, on our memorial trip, my husband asked a clerk if they sold the ribbon. A very nice person made a great effort to search high and low in the storeroom. My husband spoke to her in French about Sylvan landing his Horsa in Normandy on D-Day and she was so charmed, she gave the medal to him.

When I scanned the medal I placed it on a blue silk scarf surrounded by Belgian lace. I bought the lace in 1981 in Belgian, a country liberated by the Allies. I am not sure why there were three stars on the the bar. Sylvan was in two groups (313, 316, and temporarily the 438th) as a glider pilot and was stationed in Africa, Sicily, England and flew missions in Normandy and Holland. If anyone knows what the stars mean, I would appreciate hearing from you.

WWII Glider Pilot on Hell's Highway

I was recently gifted with a photo of my uncle, F/O Sylvan Lucier, found in a photo album that was donated to the Silent Wings Museum in Lubbock, Texas. It is wonderful that the album creator, a fellow glider pilot with the 316th TCG, put names on photos! It must be the last photo before my uncle died, October 13, 1944.

I am grateful to Hans den Brok, a Dutch researcher who has helped me for years, for finding this photo of my uncle. It belongs in the narrative of Sylvan's After Action Report posted earlier on this blog:
"After much confusion we finally were relieved and on Sunday, September 24, we started by motor convoy to Brussels. We ran into a German Ambush and had to wait a couple days for the road to open again. We did make it to Brussels on September 27 and flew back to home station."

With such a wonderful photograph to add to my uncle's story, I naturally was curious about where it was taken. Hans was on the trail to find the location, searching photographs of Veghel and Uden. He found a photo taken in front of that same building in Uden, in a book, Operation Market Garden, Then & Now by Karel Margry, After The Battle Publisher. The building in the far background is distinctive. It is gone today but was previously a hospital. In the same scene today there are new buildings in the background.

An earlier photo I have shows Sylvan in dress uniform, on leave in Italy, before the 316 TCG leaves Sicily for England, around March 1944. Here we see somebody very different; the glider pilot veteran of D-Day in Normandy and D-Day+1 in Holland, in the clothing of an armed combat soldier on Hell's Highway. He landed his CG-4A glider under fire; jeep, men and equipment safe, and for a few days collected para drop bundles needed by the airborne troops. Glider pilots with the United States Army were always directed to return to base quickly for another mission, but this was often not possible.With a group of 295 (I've read different numbers), all flight officers, he volunteered to fight on the front lines in order to free the paratroopers to cross the Waal River capture the Nijmegen Bridge.

(That is from the story of the Waalcrossing by the 504 Parachute Infantry Regiment [PIR], 307 Engineers.)

On 19 September at 2100, General Gavin called the 50th Wing Glider Officer, Maj. Hugh Nevins, and told him to get 295 glider pilots lined up to take the places of the 504th troopers needed for the river crossing. The GPs, bivouacked near Groesbeek, were to go into the line on the Groesbeek Heights, which was under constant attack at the time. Most of the pilots were armed with nothing heavier than .45-cal. automatics or M-1 carbines; all were volunteers. The change took place around midnight of 19 September--two GPs into each foxhole, replacing two troopers. The glider pilots would not sleep for another 36 hours.

The pilots, though they were spared a frontal attack, were under steady fire from small arms, machine guns, and hourly attacks by mortars, 88s, and the “screaming mimis” (Nebelwerfers). However, according to Maj. Nevins, “The single most devastating ordeal was lack of sleep. . . [which was] really worse than the enemy fire.” In daylight on 21 September, Maj. Nevins was checking positions overlooking Mook when he spotted eight of the formidable Tiger tanks moving in on his lines from the Reichswald. The tanks, “looking like enormous crawling prehistoric monsters, were creaking up the railroad around our right flank. If they got behind us, they would slaughter us piecemeal. Over the field phone, I alerted battalion and division command posts, asking for anti-tank support as quickly as possible. I’m sure my voice was shaking.” Within minutes, two bazooka teams appeared and began to stalk the tanks. When they had crept up within less than fifty yards of the lead tanks, they cut loose and “literally detonated the first three tanks.” The others withdrew back into the woods. When the GPs were relieved, they had suffered 12 casualties, including two killed (Dank, a, 191-93).

Sylvan with the other glider pilots had to again fight, while on "Hell's Highway" to Belgium when they attempted to return to England as ordered:

The glider pilots were put on 26 empty trucks headed for Belgium, and evacuated on 24 September. In the 101st’s sector, just south of Veghel (see “The Unknown Hero,” the convoy was ambushed by Col. Freiherr von der Heydte’s 6th Parachute Regiment. Fortunately for the glider pilots in the convoy, the GP in charge, Capt. Elgin D. Andross, Group Glider Officer of the 313th, had previously served in the infantry. At considerable risk to his own life, Andross organized his troops, who eventually fought their way out of the ambush, killing over 100 German paratroopers. Thirteen glider pilots had been casualties, and three others were captured (Devlin, 274f).

1st-Hand Accounts: D-Day in Holland: War Diary Airborne in Action Nijmegen Waal River Crossing No Time to Die Unknown Hero Return to "From the Book" Copyright © 2001-10 Charles D. Young. All rights reserved. Last modified: 23 Nov 2010

WWII Glider Pilot Reunion,Silent Wings Museum, Lubbock, Texas

So much to enjoy at the Silent Wings Museum at Lubbock, Texas! It's completely renovated since the last time we visited, the year it opened. The CG-4A is compete, inside and out! Two days of visiting and I didn't have time to read all the displays. Wonderful volunteers treated everyone like royalty. There was a dedication held outside, fittingly near the bricks that memorialize the pilots Killed in Action and Killed In Line of Duty.

We spent lots of time in the hotel Hospitality Room, enjoying lunch and dinners together, gathering stories, meeting fellows we know and new ones as well, meeting the fellows from Europe who help people searching lost war information, and delighting in all the families attending with dad and grandpa. The time passed so fast, but we are happy to hear it will be in Oklahoma next year.