Warbird Information Exchange

Has anyone seen (or does anyone have) a World War II vintage Douglas Aircraft Company ID badge, especially one from Tulsa? The best view I've found yet is zooming in on the detail of a larger picture. I've just never seen one, and would love to know what they actually looked like in color. Here are a couple of pictures, taken through a screen:

kevin

[img][img]http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g204/tulsaboy/IDBadge2.jpg[/img]

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Hello all,

I figured that I would go ahead and update my own thread, and answer my own question. Apparently I posted this question in 2007, and it has only taken me 4 years to figure it out. Warning: this is a small rant/dissertation on an incredibly obscure and small piece of WWII aircraft production. If you aren't the least bit interested, click "back" on your browser and continue on with your day. If you are interested, however, consider yourself forewarned!

Below are some photos of WWII Douglas Aircraft badges used in Douglas plants across the country. According to the information on the back of the badges, they were made by (or with the cooperation of) the Jeffries Banknote Company in Los Angeles. Pictured are two styles: the one with just numbers is the typical badge, with the top number being the employee number and the bottom number being the department number. The second style with the name typed into the badge is apparently a management or special guest badge- I have seen black and white photos of the Tulsa plant manager's badge, and it is similar to this one with his name printed instead of an employee number. The Tulsa Municipal Airport manager, though not a Douglas employee, was a regular visitor and as such was awarded a similar badge with his name instead of an employee number.

The colored buttons, which are plastic or possibly bakelite, were apparently used to designate to what part of the plant a particular employee was allowed access. Various color combinations indicated different areas of the plant. Some of the colored buttons also had numbers on them. I have no idea what the numbers indicated, other than to hazard a guess that they might have played a role in the access indication system. If you look closely at the regular employee badge, one of the black buttons has a very faint "2" etched/pressed into it.

The badges themselves are very lightweight, being made of a laminated plastic material. The upper 2/3 of the badge is a single piece, and the lower 1/3 with the department number is separate and held onto the upper part by the buttons. Could it be that this allowed employees to change departments without having to issue a new badge, but just requiring a replacement of the lower portion of the badge? I an unsure/unclear. The lower section is also a different color on the two badges, being orange on the regular badge and yellow on the management badge. I have also seen photos of another regular badge that has a green bottom. The management badge appears to have a tan upper part, while the regular badge has an upper part, with the Douglas logo, that is yellow. A well-known photo in the collection of the Library of Congress shows a Rosie the Riveter (hubba hubba!) wearing a badge with a blue top and a yellow bottom. That photo was taken in one of the California plants, and not in Tulsa or Chicago. Could the upper color relate to the location of the plant, or were there just several variants? Again, another unanswered question.

The back of the badges has a simple pin-on metal fastener that appears to have been attached by melting another piece of laminated plastic to the back of the badge. At the top of the back of the badge, the inscription reads "REWARD Will be paid by Douglas Aircraft Co., Inc., Santa Monica, Calif. (or nearest plant office) upon return of lost badge. Mail or deliver together with your name and address."

The badges that I have are apparently from two slightly different points in time- the regular employee badge has a "Patent Pending" notation on the back, while the management badge has a "Pat. No. 2,441,002" notation. Such a time frame question would also feed into my theory that the management one came from Tulsa and the other from California, as Tulsa was in production at a later date than California.

Like I said, apparently I am the only one who is unfortunately interested or passionate about the obscure badges of Douglas Aircraft during WWII, but to me they are an incredibly personal, direct connection to the men and women who labored here on the home front to help our brave service men and women to win the war overseas. Touching them feels like reaching out through time to touch them. For me, it is a moving experience.

If anyone has other Douglas badges, or other badges from companies participating in the war effort, please feel free to post! I think they would be neat to see.

kevin

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FOUND the elusive DT-built B-24! Woo-hoo!!!

You're not the only one interested, Kevin. I've started a small collection of Army Air Field badges and I'll post a photo later.

Great, Scott! Looking forward to it! I also got a Spartan Aircraft badge for the museum last year, not sure if i have a photo handy- it is metal, and is the type where you put a mug-shot photo into the badge frame.

Looking forward to seeing your badges. Shoot me an e-mail sometime!

kevin

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FOUND the elusive DT-built B-24! Woo-hoo!!!

Nice detective work Kevin. I enjoyed your write up.

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FWIW, I'll give you a bit of information about the coding on the badges. As I worked at Douglas Long Beach in 1959 (as a C-133 electrician) the badges were still the same as the WWII issues. I'll relate what I recall

1.The five digit number was most probably the employes s/n as they were all 5 digit. By '59 we had our name on the badge. If you were a direct person you had your first name and last name only(e.g. Bill Smith). No initials were permitted as that was "reserved for management" (e.g. W.E. Smith). When entering the plant you had to show your badge and have your wallet open displaying your photo ID card.
2. The color buttons represented ones security level. If your security level changed then the colored button (s) would be punched out and replaced as required. Two yellow buttons was the 'basic' level of security. At one time I had a green and a red button for secret (The button colors became status symbols!). If you were a high level of management you had no buttons whatsoever and the badge was shorter.
3. The large number at the very bottom was your department number.

By the mid-60's the badges had been entirely revised to have your name and photo displayed and were much larger than the original.

jdvoss,

Thanks so much for the reply! Your response confirmed for me some of what I had speculated about. The employee number makes sense, as it would have had to be a large number due to the large number of employees at Douglas.

The department number also makes sense. I am right now in the early stages of trying to match department numbers with what that department's function was, at least at the Tulsa plant.

The color buttons were the biggest mystery for me. I was pretty confident that they had to do with plant access/security level. My wife's grandfather started working at the Tulsa plant in 1951 when it reopened to build B-47s and B-66s, and they still had the colored buttons as you described. The main mystery is what the color combinations mean, and you have at least given me some insight into a couple of the combinations. Thanks!

kevin

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FOUND the elusive DT-built B-24! Woo-hoo!!!

Now that I have re-energized the cells in my brain I have recalled another apsect about the badge. If you note in the color illustrations of the badges above you will see that there are differences of the background color behind the Douglas logo (e.g. yellow & blue). Each Douglas plant had its own color code. I do not recall what color I had at Long Beach but it seems that it was either blue or green. The color photo of the woman sheetmetal worker has a blue background to her badge so I would have to say that she was either a Santa Monica or Long Beach employee. So when you saw a badge the colors would immediatley tell a lot about the person who was wearing it. Therefore if you were a Long Beach employee you could not simply walk in to another nearby Douglas plant (e.g. El Segundo or Santa Monica) for a self guided tour. Security would stop you at the gate.

Also, as a point of interest all of the Douglas plants had letters assigned to the sites. Santa Monica was "A" plant, El Segundo was "B", Long Beach was "C" and the other three plants remain unknown to me. I understand that there is Douglas Museum located at the Santa Monica Airport. Perhaps they could provide more information on the badge coding. I believe that the people who volunteer there are 'old time' employees who may recall the badge information.

Although a different subject I pulled up the Tulsa plant on google.earth and noted that the site is now filled with what looks like semi-trucks and school buses...100's and 100's of them! What goes on there now?

They do, indeed, build school busses in the north part of what was once Air Force Plant 3. Kevin and I drive by there often, and I think of A-24s, B-24s, A-26s, B-47s, and B-66s rolling out the north doors every time I do.

Here are the Army Air Field badges I've accumulated so far. The Fairmont badge was worn by a civilian employee in the Post Engineer department. The Sioux City badge was also worn by a civilian worker, though I don't know the department assignment.


These three all date (obviously on two of them) to the B-29 training program at the respective fields. In all of my 2AF training program research the only mention of ramp/hangar security starts when the B-29s began to arrive. Several base histories mention that NO ONE was allowed on the apron or in hangars without a proper security badge affixed to their blouse when the B-29 was present. These badges are all fairly early issue. The later issue had a photo of the wearer along with other info. The badges with photos are hard to find and expensive to purchase when found. The black badge is from the Combat Crew Training School at Clovis. The McCook badge belonged to F. Worrall. I suspect he was a civilian employee (possibly in the Sub-Depot maintenance area) due to the leather mount for his badge. The Salina badge was worn by a member of a flight crew or associated ground crew--the tactical designation was given to men in training rather than to permanent Base Unit personnel.


Scott