Picked up a group of uniforms at auction. What do I have here?

You have two wartime HBT shirts with 1950s or 1960s period badging. The top shirt with the 3rd Div patch is the common model, although I have never seen one with a pocket added to the sleeve. The bottom shirt, with the 3rd Armor patch is a harder to find, earlier model. These HBT items are widely documented in Militaria magazine and various other publications on GI clothing and equipment.

Thanks for the information. I did some checking. Guess the pocket thing was common in Korean War.

That's cool! I didn't know anything about the added arm pockets. Seems US soldiers have a long history of accessorizing their sleeves!

The second to last picture is very interesting. The guy on the left not only has added sleeve pockets, but it appears he has epaulets as well. He's definitely wearing the field shirt and not the field jacket, like the guy in the middle. The other cool thing is you can see that the added items were made from a darker cloth than the shirt, either because of production variations or because the shirt was faded before the extras applied.

Steve

Yep. It looks like the sky's the limit with these pockets.

Thanks, all-- this is a cool thing to know about. I've never run across such a mod before, but now I will know not to write it off as a civilian modification.

YES VERY UNUSUAL. DOING MODS BACK IN THE DAY.