Post WWI M1924 Spec 8-31 Enlisted Service Coat, “F” Tr, 7th Cavalry Regt

Description

Post WWI M1924 Spec 8-31 Enlisted Service Coat, “F” Tr, 7th Cavalry Regt.
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Note: I have included a picture for another standing collar M1924 EM Service Coat that I ran across. Its the last picture above in the listed pictures. You can see the gilt type II collar disks as well as the M1921 OD wool on Blue wool Chevrons. These uniform types are extremely rare.
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For your consideration is this beautiful 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, M1924 Spec 8-31 Enlisted Service Coat.
This coat dates from 1924-1934.
Please note that 1st Cavalry Division patches from 1921-1930 are extremely hard to locate and extremely expensive. The 7th Cavalry Screw back DI’s are extremely rare as well. The uniform type of the M1924 EM Service Coat was changed very quickly in 1930 with most being converted to the Rolled Collar M1926 EM Service Coat. This being said, the early M1921 Chevrons are nearly non existent on standing collar Type uniforms. 1st reason is that the Army population was very small during this period and the conversion from M1924 to M1926 EM Service Coat makes the M1921 Chevrons on Standing Collar uniforms very rare.
Finally, the M1924 EM Service Coat is very scarce.
Putting all of of this together makes for a very rare uniform coat.
Description
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This coat has a beautiful 7th Cavalry Regimental patch for the 1st Cavalry Division. The patch is Melton Wool construction, where the cross bar & horses head is baby blue.
The collar has 2 Type II Collar Disks. One of them is for the U.S. 7 Regiment & the other is for Cavalry, “F” Troop.
The collar also has 2, Screw Back, 7th Cavalry Regimental Distinctive Unit Identifications.
There is a Wool on Wool M1921 Sergeant Chevrons on each sleeve.
On the left sleeve is 2, six month overseas bullion Chevrons.
Finally, the coat has a Mexican Border Service Ribbon and WWI Ribbon.
This is truly a very nice uniform with nothing like it on the entire digital marketplace.
Condition
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light mothing on the outer lower pockets. The inside right armpit is split at the bottom but can be easily repaired.
The 7th Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army cavalry regiment formed in 1866. Its official nickname is "Garryowen", after the Irish air "Garryowen" that was adopted as its march tune.
This uniform includes:
• M1924 Enlisted Service Coat
• M1921 Sergeant Chevrons; Wool on Wool
• 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division patch; Wool on Twill. Ca 1921
• 7th Cavalry Regiment, DI’s Screw back
• Type II Collar Disk; 7th Regiment
• Type II Collar Disk; “F” Troop, Cavalry
• Mexican Border Service, WWI; Ribbon Bar w/ Screw back; SILK
Spanish American War through the Punitive Expedition
From 1895 until 1899, the regiment served in New Mexico (Fort Bayard) and Oklahoma (Ft. Sill), then overseas in Cuba (Camp Columbia) from 1899 to 1902. An enlisted trooper with the Seventh Cavalry, "B" Company, from May 1896 until March 1897 at Fort Grant Arizona Territory was author Edgar Rice Burroughs
The regiment served in the Philippines during the Philippine–American War from 1904 through 1907, with a second tour from 1911 through 1915. Here they conducted counter-insurgency operations against Filipino guerrillas in the jungles and rural areas of the islands.
Border War
Back in the United States, the regiment was again stationed in the southwest, in Arizona (Camp Harvey J. Jones), where it patrolled the U.S.-Mexico border and later was part of the Mexican Punitive Expedition of 1916 to 1917. During this expedition, the 7th Cavalry executed what is regarded as America's "last true Cavalry charge" at the Battle of Guerrero.[51] Colonel George A. Dodd, commanding a force of 370 from the 7th Cavalry, led his Troopers into the Mexican State of Chihuahua in pursuit of Pancho Villa. After riding 400 miles in 14 days, Dodd's exhausted Troopers finally caught up with Villa's force in the town of Guerrero on 29 March 1916.
The 7th Cavalry was low on rations, and had to fight a battle against a well defended town. According to varying sources, there were between 200 and 500 Villistas at Guerrero, spread out across the town, and for the first couple of hours after the 7th Cavalry's arrival, Dodd had his men attempt to ascertain the number of enemy forces. It wasn't until 8:00 am that the order to attack was given. Dodd divided his command into three contingents with instructions to charge and surround the town in order to cut off the Villistas's avenue of escape. When the Americans charged, fighting erupted at three points. After the charge the Americans dismounted to fight the Mexicans on foot. Guerrero was flanked by mountains on two sides which made it difficult to surround the town and the Villistas used them for cover. There were also not enough cavalrymen to cover all of the escape routes so the majority of the Mexicans got away, including Pancho Villa. Part of the Villista army mounted up and retreated east through a valley. They were pursued by some of the American cavalrymen in a ten-mile running engagement. Another force of Mexicans calmly rode out of Guerrero, pretending to be Carrancistas by displaying a Mexican national flag, this group went unmolested by the 7th Cavalry. Villa lost his friend, General Elicio Hernandez, and fifty-five others killed in the battle and another thirty-five wounded. The Americans suffered only five wounded during a five-hour battle. Colonel Dodd and his men also captured thirty-six horses and mules, two machine guns, many small arms and some war supplies. Several condemned Carrancista prisoners were liberated.
Initially the Battle of Guerrero was thought to be a great opening success in the campaign but it later proved to be a disappointment as it would be the closest they came to capturing Villa in battle. However, the battle was considered the "most successful single engagement of Pershing's Punitive Expedition." After the retreat the Villista army dispersed and for the next three months they no longer posed a significant threat to the United States military. Villa himself hid out in the hills while his knee healed. One day, not long after the battle, Villa was camped at the end of a valley and watched a troop of Pershing's cavalrymen ride by. Villa heard them singing "It's a Long Way to Tipperary," this would be the last time Americans got so close to the rebel. News of the victory was widely circulated in the United States, prompting the Senate's approval of Colonel Dodd's promotion to brigadier general.
In December 1917, 7th Cavalry was assigned to the 15th Cavalry Division, an on-paper organization designed for service in France during World War I that was never more than a simple headquarters. This was because no significant role emerged for mounted troops on the Western Front during the 19 months between the entry of the United States into the war and the Armistice of 11 November 1918.[52] The 7th Cavalry was released from this assignment in May 1918.
On 15 June 1919, Pancho Villa fought his last battle with the Americans. At the Battle of Ciudad Juárez, Villista and Carrancista forces engaged in combat in Ciudad Juárez just south of El Paso, Texas across the Rio Grande. The 7th Cavalry was temporarily at Fort Bliss and responded to the battle when Villista snipers killed and wounded US Soldiers of the 82nd Field Artillery Regiment. The 12th Infantry Regiment, the 82nd Field Artillery, the 5th Cavalry Regiment, and the 7th Cavalry Regiment quickly crossed the Santa Fe Bridge into Mexico to deal with the threat. Advancing towards the enemy, the 7th Cavalry covered the main body's flank, and then, under the protection of artillery fire, charged the Villistas and routed them.
Inter-War Period
On 13 September 1921, 7th Cavalry Regiment was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division, which assignment was maintained until 1957. The division and its 2nd Cavalry Brigade was garrisoned at Fort Bliss, Texas, while the 1st Cavalry Brigade was garrisoned at Douglas, Arizona. Additional garrison points were used as well.
The 7th Cavalry Regiment continued to train as horse cavalry right up to the American entry into World War II, including participation in several training maneuvers at the Louisiana Maneuver Area on 26 April – 28 May 1940; 12–22 August 1940; and 8 August – 4 October 1941.
1st Cavalry Division
The 1st Cavalry Division ("First Team") is a combined arms division and is one of the most decorated combat divisions of the United States Army. It is based at Fort Hood, Texas. It was formed in 1921 and served during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, with the Stabilization Force in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in the Iraq War, in the War in Afghanistan and in Operation Freedom's Sentinel. As of October 2017, the 1st Cavalry Division is subordinate to III Corps and is commanded by Major General John B. Richardson.
The history of the 1st Cavalry Division began in 1921 after the army established a permanent cavalry division table of organization and equipment on 4 April 1921. It authorized a square division organization of 7,463 officers and men, organized as follows:
•Headquarters Element (34 men)
•Two Cavalry Brigades (2,803 men each)
•Field Artillery Battalion (790 men)
•Engineer Battalion (357 men)
•Division Quartermaster Trains Command (276 men)
•Special Troops Command (337 men)
•Ambulance Company (63 men)
On 20 August 1921, the War Department Adjutant General constituted the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Divisions to meet partial mobilization requirements, and authorized the establishment of the 1st Cavalry Division under the new TO&E on 31 August 1921. Since 1st Cavalry Division was to assemble from existing units, it was able to go active in September 1921, even though the subordinate units did not arrive completely until as late as 1922.
1st Cavalry Division was assigned to the VIII Corps Area, with its division headquarters and 2nd Brigade located at Fort Bliss, Texas, and the 1st Brigade at Camp Harry J. Jones in Douglas, Arizona. The headquarters facilities used by 1st Cavalry Division were those previously vacated by 8th United States Brigade when it was commanded by MG John J. Pershing in 1916, and the wartime 15th Cavalry Division, which had existed at Fort Bliss between 10 December 1917 and 12 May 1918.
The 1st Cavalry Division's assembled at Douglas, Arizona. The 1st, 7th, and 8th Cavalry Regiments had previously been assigned to the wartime 15th Cavalry Division until they were returned to the VIII Corps Area troop list on 12 May 1918. 1st Cavalry Regiment remained assigned until it was transferred to 1st Cavalry Division on 20 August 1921. The 7th, 8th, and 10th Cavalry Regiments were transferred on 13 September 1921, although the assignment of the 10th Cavalry Regiment to the 1st Cavalry Division was controversial because the transfer violated the Jim Crow laws. This controversy continued until 18 December 1922, when the 5th Cavalry Regiment, then on the VIII Corps Area Troop List, swapped places with the 10th Cavalry Regiment.
In 1923 the 1st Cavalry Division held division maneuvers for the first time, intending to hold them annually thereafter. However, financial constraints made that impossible. Only in 1927, through the generosity of a few ranchers who provided free land, was the division able to conduct such exercises again. In 1928 Major General Herbert B. Crosby, Chief of Cavalry, faced with personnel cuts, reorganized the cavalry regiments, which in turn reduced the size of the 1st Cavalry Division. Crosby's goal was to decrease overhead while maintaining or increasing firepower in the regiment. After the reorganization each cavalry regiment consisted of a headquarters and headquarters troop; a machine gun troop; a medical and chaplain element; and two squadrons, each with a headquarters element; and two line troops. The cavalry brigades' machine gun squadrons were inactivated, while the responsibility for training and employing machine guns fell to the regimental commanders, as in the infantry.
About the same time that Crosby cut the cavalry regiment, the army staff, seeking to increase the usefulness of the wartime cavalry division, published new tables of organization for an even larger unit. The new structure increased the size of the signal troop (177), expanded the medical unit to a squadron (233), and endorsing Crosby's movement of the machine gun units from the brigades to the regiments (2X176). A divisional aviation section, an armored car squadron (278), and tank company (155) were added, the field artillery battalion was expanded to a regiment (1,717), and divisional strength rose to 9,595.
Prelude to World War II
With the arrival of the 1930s, serious work started on the testing and refining of new equipment and TO&Es for a mechanized and motorized army. To facilitate this, 1st Cavalry Division traded 1st Cavalry Regiment for 12th Cavalry Regiment on 3 January 1933.
Taking into account recommendations from the VIII Corps Area, the Army War College, and the Command and General Staff School, the board developed a new smaller triangular cavalry division, which the 1st Cavalry Division evaluated during maneuvers at Toyahvale, Texas, in 1938. Like the 1937 infantry division test, the maneuvers concentrated on the divisional cavalry regiments around which all other units were to be organized.
Following the test, a board of 1st Cavalry Division officers, headed by Brigadier General Kenyon A. Joyce, rejected the three-regiment division and recommended retention of the two-brigade (four-regiment) organization. The latter configuration allowed the division to deploy easily in two columns, which was accepted standard cavalry tactics. However, the board advocated reorganizing the cavalry regiment along triangular lines, which would give it a headquarters and headquarters troop, a machine gun squadron with special weapons and machine gun troops, and three rifle squadrons, each with one machine gun and three rifle troops. No significant change was made in the field artillery, but the test showed that the engineer element should remain a squadron to provide the divisional elements greater mobility on the battlefield and that the special troops idea should be extended to include the division headquarters, signal, and ordnance troops; quartermaster, medical, engineer, reconnaissance, and observation squadrons; and a chemical warfare detachment. One headquarters would assume responsibility for the administration and disciplinary control for these forces.
Although the study did not lead to a general reorganization of the cavalry division, the wartime cavalry regiment was restructured, effective 1 December 1938, to consist of a headquarters and headquarters troop, machine gun and special weapons troops, and three squadrons of three rifle troops each. The special troops remained as structured in 1928, and no observation squadron or chemical detachment found a place in the division. With the paper changes in the cavalry divisions and other minor adjustments, the strength of a wartime divisional rose to 10,680.
In order to prepare for war service, 1st Cavalry Division participated in the following maneuvers:
•Toyahvale, TX Maneuvers – 7 October through 30 October 1939.
•Cravens-Pitkin Louisiana Maneuvers – 13 August through 24 August 1940.
•Second 3rd Army Louisiana Maneuvers – 10 August through 4 October 1941.
•VIII Corps Louisiana Maneuvers near Mansfield, LA – 27 July 1942 – 21 September 1942.