World War II - Golden Pilot's Class Ring - Freeman Field Indiana

The airplane on the ring is a Lockheed P-38 Lightning.

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Germans called it the Fork Tailed Devil
 
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Why are you convinced this is from a crash site? Has there ever been anything at this location? Temporary soldier housing? Parade field? Headquarters site? R&R site? Is it a spot people would visit for the view?
 
Dear fellow hunters,


A friend of me found this 10k golden ring in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. It was found a few miles from the landing place where the 101st Airborn division landed on 17 september 1944 because of Operation Market Garden. Can anyone help me identify this ring?


The texts on the ring:

Front: United States Army, Air Force
Side 1: Pilot
Side 2: Freeman field SEA FTC(?) and Prepare for Combat

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Here are all the pics I made of the ring:

https://plus.google.com/photos/105837108022563648969/albums/5886105319597543361?authkey=CLPppsfupIu8Lg


My grandfather passed down his ring to me which looks quite similar to this one. From my understanding he was part of the 100th group which I believe is refereed to the Bloody Hundredth Brigade group. Lt Kenneth Houghton, there is a pretty cool site with some other names and pictures on there.
Oh it says the he was POW, but, he was never captured. That is the only story he had ever told me about.

I guess he must have known he was going to pass it along to me and had my birth stone placed in it. Not sure if that helps or anything, but if anyone has any information on mine or his I would really appreciate it. Unfortunately my grandfather passed a few years ago at the age of 98. That being said, for most of my life that I can remember he was not too talkative or unable to. So again any information on the ring would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for everything. My ring has been worn down alittle, hopefully still clear enough.

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Greetings, folks...

Sorry to do a "thread necro" on this, but I thought I'd stop in and say hi. I'm not a metal detector hobbyist, but I am a WWII buff and was doing some research on pilot rings when an image search on similar rings brought me to this thread.

After looking at it, and checking records, that ring almost certainly belonged to:

Captain Robert R. Nelson. <---(Link)

His information is on the page linked to his name. He was an F-5 pilot. The F-5 was the unarmed, photo recon version of the P-38 lightning. Note the record shows he was shot down at Eindhoven-Gestel, at 11am, 8 June 1944.

That type of ring was quite common among the pilots. They could have a stone set in it, most likely a birthstone. If they chose not to, the face would be engraved, as in this example.

In reading the posts in the thread, I can't see any reasonable alternative to this being Captain Nelson's ring. Everything fits just too well. Hope this helps, if the search for information is still going on.



-Irish
 
Greetings, folks...

Sorry to do a "thread necro" on this, but I thought I'd stop in and say hi. I'm not a metal detector hobbyist, but I am a WWII buff and was doing some research on pilot rings when an image search on similar rings brought me to this thread.

After looking at it, and checking records, that ring almost certainly belonged to:

Captain Robert R. Nelson. <---(Link)

His information is on the page linked to his name. He was an F-5 pilot. The F-5 was the unarmed, photo recon version of the P-38 lightning. Note the record shows he was shot down at Eindhoven-Gestel, at 11am, 8 June 1944.

That type of ring was quite common among the pilots. They could have a stone set in it, most likely a birthstone. If they chose not to, the face would be engraved, as in this example.

In reading the posts in the thread, I can't see any reasonable alternative to this being Captain Nelson's ring. Everything fits just too well. Hope this helps, if the search for information is still going on.



-Irish

Awesome information. I hope the original poster sees this. Thank you
 
Greetings, folks...

Sorry to do a "thread necro" on this, but I thought I'd stop in and say hi. I'm not a metal detector hobbyist, but I am a WWII buff and was doing some research on pilot rings when an image search on similar rings brought me to this thread.

After looking at it, and checking records, that ring almost certainly belonged to:

Captain Robert R. Nelson. <---(Link)

His information is on the page linked to his name. He was an F-5 pilot. The F-5 was the unarmed, photo recon version of the P-38 lightning. Note the record shows he was shot down at Eindhoven-Gestel, at 11am, 8 June 1944.

That type of ring was quite common among the pilots. They could have a stone set in it, most likely a birthstone. If they chose not to, the face would be engraved, as in this example.

In reading the posts in the thread, I can't see any reasonable alternative to this being Captain Nelson's ring. Everything fits just too well. Hope this helps, if the search for information is still going on.



-Irish

Awesome first post Irish!!

The OP of this thread has not been on the Forum since August, but I will send him a PM and hope he is still around!
 
amazing info Irish. I bet his family would be ecstatic to get a memory like that.
 
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Best reason I’ve ever seen to dig up a old thread! This would be amazing if it was solved and returned to the family. The power of the ole interweb is real! Thank you for joining and sharing this info O’Donovan!!
 
The U.S. Airforce was formed in 1947. Prior to that the U.S. Army Aircorp was our flyers. The ring is not WWII based on the dates. Although it shows older planes, the construction looks newer. Just some thoughts.... Top U.S. Army Retired.

You're missing a bit of history of the United States Army Air Forces:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Air_Forces

The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the military aviation service of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II (1939/41-1945), successor to the previous United States Army Air Corps and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force of today, one of the five uniformed military services. The AAF was a component of the United States Army, which in 1942 was divided functionally by executive order into three autonomous forces: the Army Ground Forces, the Services of Supply (which in 1943 became the Army Service Forces), and the Army Air Forces.

The Army Air Forces was created in June 1941

The United States Air Force (USAF) was formed as a separate branch of the U.S. Armed Forces on 18 September 1947

That dates the ring between June 1941 and September 1947.

It's absolutely, definitely, and positively the right time period for the location. :)
 
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