Page 33 - July1998

July 1998 II/[ll0]iiA: 3J:l:i{ BJIIETN t75

A Wqshington stEte sedl cuff Button

t|nd wqslrinson Stqte Gunnl
Militclry Buttons unlisted in Athert

b1, VirgilD. Wiggins

Some time ago I bought unseen a bag of buttons from a
Washington State military dealer. Unforfunately about
40% of these buttons turned out to be something other
than military buttons. However, in this bag was a small
collection of Washington State buttons unlisted in
Albert's book. The Washinston State Seal cuff butron
was brass, had the bust of George Washington, and
lacked any marginal writing. The backmark was the
I4/ashington State "generic" M Superior M / Quality".
Seal Cttff
The other buttorrs which I later determined to be
Washington State Guard buttons
(WSG) were composed of two materials. The first
material was a heavily blackened metal (copper?). The
second material was a black plastic. Some coat and
cuff metal buttons had the sarne backrnark as the
Washington State Seal cuff buttor,. The rest of the
metal buttons had tlre very unusual backrnark
Waterbury Button Co. / two crossed, fletched arrows
pointed upwards and outwards. This symbol is unlisted
Clora InsigniaJrom
in McGuinn & Bazelon (1996). The plastic buttons
the collection ofJoe
lacked a backmark.
Corse
Research on the two crossed. feathered arrows
indicated that this symbol was well known and used in the
U.S. military. It was first used to signify the Indian
Scouts. Subsequently, it was used on the obverse ofthe
medal "The Legion of Merit" as ordered by Congress
on July 20, 1942. Shoftly after that on August 27,
1942 rt was accepted as the ofhcial insignia of the First
Special Force units.
As I was getting ready to submit this article, I found
Coat Button a brass MC cuff button with the identical crossed