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Ordnance Plant, Works, Arsenal, and Depot Insignia Patches

wichitaslumlord

wichitaslumlord

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Here is my collection of United States Ordnance Plant, Ordnance Depot, Ordnance Works, and Arsenal shoulder sleeve insignia (patches).
Many are WW2 era, especially the ones on a yellow disc. These were not actual military personnel, but rather civilian employees of the military.
There are 44 different facilities represented here and there are quite a number that I still don't have! But the search continues..........
Feel free to ask any questions that you may have and thanks for looking! Pat
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Pat,

That's a really great collection. I've only ever seen a couple of those so I assume you have looked hard and spent years gathering them up. Very cool.

I visited a friend in Minnesota last year who had a similar collection of personal ID badges from WWII ordnance production facilities. Most were photo ID but also metal shields and badges for guards. Makes for a nice display in the man cave.

My personal sub-collection in this area is military padlocks. Whenever I'd go to a gun or military show and find no ordnance, I'd often pick up a military lock if it was something different. Still need to put them all in a shadow box someday.
 
Thanks Rick,
I have been collecting patches since 1979, the same time I began collecting inert ordnance. These can be a bit pricey sometimes as there are other people who collect them. I also collect military padlocks when I run across one. So far, they are not terribly expensive and are interesting!
Take care, Pat
 
Pat, I've never seen patches like that. I wonder if Scioto Ordnace Plant (north of Marion Ohio) had one. I did a job there a few years back.
Are these the type of locks you're talking about? Cheers, Bruce.

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Hello Bruce,
That lock is older and much cooler than any of my locks! If you ever run across a plant patch that is not pictured above, please keep me in mind! The down side to collecting the patches is wasting valuable ordnance hunting time rooting around in patch boxes at the show.....See you at SOS in a few days! Pat
 
General Electric opened in Pittsfield Mass. in 1903, buying an existing electric machinery plant from William Stanley. According to the book "In the Wake of the Giant" by anthropologist Max Kirsch, GE came to dominate employment in Pittsfield in the 1920s and the 1930s, as the textile industry declined. The federal government financed a GE ordnance plant there during World War II. At its peak during the 1940s, the GE plant employed 13,000 people - in a city of just about 50,000.

The General Electric Pittsfield Plant, which included Air Force Plant 69, was a plant of General Electric located in Pittsfield, Massachusetts
March 8, 1985 PITTSFIELD, Mass. (AP) _ About 350 workers at a General Electric defense plant walked off the job Friday in a labor dispute, a union official said.


The Ordnance Systems Division plant has 4,500 employees.

The Ordnance Systems Division makes electrical guidance and electromechanical systems for missiles and military vehicles.

The plant closed in 1977.

That is what I found in a brief internet search. Pat
 
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