US Military Pin with a telephone. ?

Please excuse the pictures, my battery died on my camera so I used my ancient scanner. I've been looking up medals and ribbons all afternoon but I haven't had any luck finding this one with the telephone. 3/4". I think I covered all branches and wars up until the Gulf. Is anyone familiar with this? What branch? Time period? Who would have worn it? Anything? Thank you.

 

Looks like an old telephone. Perhaps the communications brigade in France during WWII? Or may be even old enough to be WWI?

My great-uncle was a manager for Ma Bell before the war and was recruited as a major in the US Army to supervise the creation of the telephone system in Europe to connect the various units.

 

Thanks Bakersgma. I agree it looks like and old phone so I started with WWI and WWII. I'll try searching "Communications Brigade" and see if that helps.

 

Bakersgma, that helped. I just found one for sale. The seller states it's a WWII Telephone Operators Homefront Awards Ribbon. Now that I have something better to go on, I'll see if I can verify that. Thank you!

 

Close enough for government work! Always glad to help, even in a small way.

 

Hi,
What the hell do you mean old phone? It is the phone next to my PC that I use a lot.
greg

 

Greg....i think you merit that award !!!

 

Hi Skeezix,
It works as an extension phone, It does not ring and can not call out since the wiring down here only has pulse and tone. It worked fine up in Middlesex NJ. Now I can listen and talk. It gets very heavy after awhile. I guess that is why calls did not last long back then. If I remember it is a Western Electric E-1.
greg

 

>What the hell do you mean old phone? <

Way to go, Greg! Give it to these young'uns. That "old phone" was new to our town in Massachusetts in 1954. The phone company distributed, connected, them while we still had operators. On a certain date, the rotary/dial phones could be used. That morning as we came down for breakfast I beat my brother to the phone. I gingerly picked it up and dialed a friend. Wonders of wonders, it worked with no need of an operator. What will they come up with next.

--- Susan

 

We had operators out in eastern Long Island until some time while I was in HS - '62 for sure and at least another year or two. We moved there in '61 and I thought my parents had taken us to the end of the earth!

A well for water, septic tank, partyline phone, a disused cabbage patch across the road that was just being platted and Black Angus cattle on the other side of our backyard fence where the property abutted a "gentleman's farm."

 

I remember "party lines". When I was young and stayed with my Grandmother, one of my favorite pastimes was listening in on her party line. The hard part was picking up the receiver without them hearing me. I usually got caught and they would yell at me but, I would always try again. "Party Line" has an entirely new meaning now.

 

That sounds idyllic !

 

Love it!

 

Interesting

 

My grandmother's house in Putnam Lake, NY, also had an operator and was a party line, while our phone in NYC had neither. I felt like an eavesdropper to pick up the phone and hear people having a conversation!

When we lived in our first house in MA, 30 years ago, we only had to dial the last four digits of a phone number to call within the town.