Customers' Choice Original U.s. Wwii 101st Airborne 501st Pir Captain’s Uniform & Garrison Cap With Type 6 White Tongue Patch - Captain William P. Heaton, Company E With Tracking [P2Kkefgm]

Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. This is a fantastic uniform group that came to us with identification to Captain William P. Heaton, commander of Company E, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. It comes with a note of recollections about the uniform from Mark A. Bando, renowned 101st Airborne historian, who notes that “As to the jacket, I suppose it’s possible that it actually belonged to Heaton, but it could have been easily humped together by someone with little knowledge. Another case where we’ll never know for sure, but I don’t see any red flags with it and it has a real Type 6 white tongued eagle SSI”.

The officer’s jacket bears Captains’ bars on the shoulders, White Tongue 101st Airborne & 1st Allied Airborne patches on the shoulders, and US & Infantry Officer’s collar insignia. On the right shoulder is a French Fourragere cord, and on the left shoulder is a Dutch Order of the Orange Lanyard as Awarded to U.S. Paratroopers for Operation Market Garden. Above the right breast pocket is a Presidential Unit Citation with one oak leaf cluster, and the left breast pocket bears a Combat Infantryman Badge. Above the pocket is a 6-place ribbon bar with the Silver Star Medal, the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple Heart, the American Defense Medal, the American Campaign Medal, and the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with four campaign stars and an invasion arrowhead. Above this is a gorgeous 501st PIR Oval with beautiful embroidered paratrooper wings, and there is a set of Sterling Paratrooper wings attached on top of this. As Mark Bando stated, he has seen examples of troops pinning metal wings on top of the embroidered wings. The jacket is marked size 36 Long on the interior pocket with a contract date of 1942.

His garrison cap is properly gold & black piped for an officer, with a Paratrooper/Glider patch on the right side, and Captain’s bars on the left. There is an enlisted laundry number on the sweatband, K-5325.

Also included is his officer’s shirt with one Infantry collar pin, and his tie. 

The included page of recollections from Bando provides some great insight into the uniform and Heaton’s Silver Star citation. 

This is a fantastic uniform grouping for a Captain of the 501st PIR, likely having belonged to William Heaton, but we’ll never know for sure. Comes ready for further research and display.