These bringbacks were from an ephemera grouping that belonged to T/5 Edmund E. Zacharias, who was stationed with the HQ 25th Replacement Depot on Okinawa from 1945 to May 1946.   The best part, and the one that caught my eye, was the art that is drawn on a cut up bed sheet with writing I need to translate. Along with that came a postcard which he writes was found in a cave near Chocolate Drop hill, and mozzarella eyes with his name. I'll be posting the whole group later but wanted to show these neat items.  

Makes sense to me, a lot of the islands were quite small so if they did use them a lot would probably land in the ocean, but I know the 11th airborne did it on a relatively small island and I don't think any landed in the ocean.  

as far as I've understood, it seems that as the pacific and the new island hopping tactics were finalized and put into practice they became obsolete in a tactical sense, especially since many islands were very small it was likely difficult to accurately and effectively deploy them in a combat zone. Thus they were used as regular infantry/shock troops on bougainville and other campaigns. later I think the corp saw them completely obsolete and decided to disband them and distribute them among regular marines as combat experienced soldiers became a little less common late war so the para guys were a nice boost I would imagine. I truly don't know, but this is jus my insight based on common sense...   Gear Fan

I did share the same patch on the ASMIC Facebook site and did get another response.  And once again this elusive bird wiggles from identy!    

I heard it was because of there were not enough transport aircraft to deploy them in great numbers but I could be wrong, I would love to hear why they were disbanded and I would also love to hear stories about them because they are kinda forgotten and unknown to most. 

I just check my bookshelf, and I have all three (Brophy, Canfield, and Hatcher).  I've referred more to Brophy's book than the others.  I also have Poyer's 1903 book, a good quick reference book but somewhat thin.

Thank you

Retreads Jefferson, IN, 1981-1982.     Can you imagine?  These veterans would be most likely in the 80s at this point.  Couldn't be too many reunions after this one.

Retreads Portland, OR, October 10-13, 1969  

I ended up with a large collection from a friend who was moving into assisted living, These are most of the new Coast Guard hats I ended up with.