Dog Tags, S/Sgt. Orville Downey, Hq. Co., 1st Bn., 517th PRCT, Southern France, 1944

Rare lot of three genuine WWII US Army dog tags, issued to some Orville Downey, ASN 39204514, vaccinated in 1943, 1944 and 1945, blood type A, protestant.

The present set includes an early-production dog tag made in Monel, featuring the name and address of next-of-kin (here, his mother), and a pair of late-production dog tags, which retains its first type sterling silver chains.

Orville Edgar Downey was born on December 7, 1924 in Strong City, Oklahoma and joined the US Army on March 18, 1943. He was awarded his parachutist's badge and went on to serve with 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team, participating in the operations in Italy, and in Southern France in August 1944*. He was discharged in 1945 as a Staff Sergeant, and passed away on June 23, 2005.

A truly amazing grouping, of great historical significance.

*See De Trez, Michel, First Airborne Task Force, D-Day Publishing, 1998, page 264.

https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=893&mtch=1&cat=all&tf=F&q=39204514&bc=&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=7718015

http://www.517prct.org/mailcall/2368.pdf

https://fr.findagrave.com/memorial/18538698/orville-e-downey

Illustration documents available in digital format only.