Cap Braid Color and Collar Disc Question

Hi all--

I'm working on a shadow box for a family member of a veteran who served with the 1142nd MP Company (Aviation), 381st Bomb Group of the 8th Air Force.

My question is, which cap braid color would he most likely have worn on his garrison cap? The yellow/green of the Military Police, or the ultramarine/golden orange of the Air Corps?

Also, would he then have worn MP collar discs or Air Corps?

I'm confused because of the two branches/arms of service that are involved. Can anyone help?

Thanks,
Adam

 

The Army Air Force was a branch of the Army in WWII. It wasn't made a separate branch (US Air Force) until after the war.
It seems logical that the piping and the brass would be consistent with the Army regulations at that time which would be the yellow/ green with the MP brass. Also, piping and collar disks are specific to a certain branch of the army, like or infantry, medical, military police, etc, where Air Corp brass and piping are general.

 

Hi Buten42, and thanks for the response.

I should have said Army Air Forces instead of Air Corps; I often (erroneously) use those terms interchangeably.

While I understand of course that the US Army's Air Corps became the Army Air Forces in 1941 and didn't become a separate branch of the military until 1947, I'm a bit confused by the last bit of your response, where you say "piping and collar disks are specific to a certain branch of the army, like or infantry, medical, military police, etc, where Air Corp brass and piping are general". Can you maybe clarify that for me? What do you mean by "general"?

I am in possession of this particular vet's discharge paperwork, where it lists "Air Corps" in box 4, "Arm or Service". Doesn't that mean that the Air Corps/AAF WAS his "branch"?

Just trying to wrap my mind around it all; thanks for the help!
Adam

 

In 1942, there was the Army Ground Forces, the Army Air Forces, and then the "new" Army Service Forces. The 3 branches of the Army.

 

Adam, I Apologize for the delay, been preoccupied. Let's see if I can't really muddy the waters on this. I believe Lou has it nailed, and GadgetWorks is completely correct. I'll post a part of a paper I wrote to help take the mystery out of the WWII separation paper.
What I was trying to explain in my post is the AAF was an arm of the Army where thr collar disk and piping would represent what branch a person was attached to. Much of this information came from the book " Finding Your Father's War" by Jonathan Gawne, which is an excellent reference book on this subject.

"In March 1942 the Army had three major subdivisions: the Army Ground Forces for combat units, the Army Service Forces, and the Army Air Force.*

The major Combat Arms (Commonly called “Arms’) in the Army in WWII was-
INF: Infantry,
ARTY: Artillery
CAV: Cavalry.
AAF: Army Air Force

*Prior to March, 1942, the aviation arm had been just one more branch of the Army and was known as the Army Air Corp. Army Air Force were not considered a separate combat arm of the Army.

Service Branches. The. Army was subdivided by specialty into different branches of service.
ADJ: Adjutant General’s Department
CH: Corp of Chaplains
CWS: Chemical Warfare Service
CE: Corp of Engineers
FA: Field Artillery
FD: Finance Department
IG: Inspector General’s Department
JAG: Judge Advocate Generals’ Department
MPC: Military Police Corp
ORD: Ordnance Department
QMC: Quartermasters Corp
SIG or SC: Signal Corp
TD: Tank Destroyer Command
TC: Transportation Corp
MC: Medical Co
AAF: Army Air Force
WAC: Woman’s Army Corp

I could not find proof all the acronyms listed were actually used on the separation form in Box#4 and there may be some I missed. Some abbreviations were not listed even when they were regarded as a separate branch. My guess is all branches under “Medical Corp” was listed as MC-Medical Corp.