I have a question on this belt. I have never seen a medallion impressed into a GI belt before. Is this something done by the military back then or by the vet? Can anyone tell me anymore info on this belt? Appears to be stamped 1918. The Colt 1911 I got with it was from 1918.
Thanks.

Attached Images

	WWI Army belt 010.JPG (233.3 KB, 169 views)
	WWI Army belt 003.jpg (114.1 KB, 200 views)
	WWI Army belt 006.jpg (123.6 KB, 167 views)
	WWI Army belt 009.JPG (251.8 KB, 156 views)
	WWI Army belt 022.JPG (264.4 KB, 147 views)

I've seen a lot of war one web gear and that's definitely a war one belt. You can tell by the weave of the webbing and color. I rather think that was done by an individual or perhaps it was a unit thing. A bit like the war one helmet art. Nice rig!

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Stay safe people!

I've not seen a medallion like that either and Vulcan Bob may be on to something about being a Unit thing. The belt is in really great condition and the holster is not bad either!

I have a WWll version and it is a little darker in color.

The crossed cannons obviously indicate an artillery unit. The letters and
numbers probably do refer to a particular unit. President Truman was a
Captain commanding an artillery unit in WW1. Rose to rank of colonel.
The unit he commanded was battery D of the 129th Field Artillery.
Some research may tell you what unit your rig is from. Nice piece of
history.

I am guessing that 4 is the Division,
F the Company or maybe Battery,
and 59 the Regiment?

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In Omnia Paratus

Nice looking rig, take some more pictures of the holster for us. Crazyphil is correct, it is a unit insignia and not original to the belt.

The only thing I could find was that Battery F was assigned to the 2ND Infantry Division in Texas City texas in 1914. I have a holster marked Battery B 78th FA 99. I was told 99 was a inventory number. So with that in mind yours would be Battery F 4th FA 59th belt rig. I would suggest that you join the usmilitariaforum.com and post your pictures there, you'd be surprised how fast you'll get an answear

"I am guessing that 4 is the Division, F the Company or maybe Battery, and 59 the Regiment?"

The 4F59 refers to 4th Battalion, 59th Field Artillery, referred to in Army shorthand as 4th of the 59th. The F Indicates the unit is Field Artillery, as opposed to Coast Artillery, Anti-Aircraft Artillery, etc.

The 59th FA could have been assigned to any Infantry Division. FA Regiments are not assigned en bloc, but rather battalions are assigned separately to individual divisions. In my time in the Army I supported units of the 4/76th, 1/79th, 6/80th, 6/83rd and others.

It is a US army property identification disc. Some confuse these with the similar sized collar branch insignia. They were unit applied, but were officially prescribed for army wide usage. You find these for all branches, such as infantry, artillery, cavalry, signal corps, etc. They are not rare, they come up for sale on eBay quite regularly. The army supplied them to units with the flat area blank. The unit would then hand stamp them with the unit information. They are commonly seen on pistol belts, cartridge belts, canteens covers, and other canvas items of individual issue.

Slufstuff has provided very good information here.

Some folks might find it difficult to believe, but theft and misappropriation of military property has always been a very real problem. Various means of marking gear for identification of its source have been used over time. These property identification discs were an effort toward standardization.

I can recall an incident during the 1970's in which a wooden case containing 4 M60 machineguns was stolen in transit. Shipping manifests identified the MG's only by a lot number stenciled on the wooden case, with no serial numbers included. A frustrating part of the investigation was corresponding with military supply depots, tracing the machineguns back over several years, only to learn that we could narrow them down to a range of serial numbers within a production lot, but military authorities were never able to come up with the actual serial numbers of those guns from their logistics records. Amazing.

The comment by Lobo is certainly true, theft and inventory control still are prevalent in the military. My job is to maintain computers, some sets cost over a million dollars. I am amazed and frustrated when someone in the supply chain uses some random number on the outside case to track it. So as things break and are replaced the new numbers do not appear on tracking documents.

Military personnel are not immune to "walking off" with the good stuff. I have found over 10 M-4 and 3 Berretta weapons in the porta johns while deployed!! I would find the nearest soldier and tell them where I found it and ask them to find the rightful owner. I am not certain others would of done the same.
So somewhere a Roman Legionnaire had the same problem I am sure.

One way to tell if a pottery shard is domestic civilian or Roman military is the Legionaries inscribed name and unit on the bottom for the same reason.

I looked at an ancestor's pay stubs from the Civil War. They were virtually identical to the current LES. No digital stuff, and the format was slightly different, but it was the same. It even showed where Uncle Sam took out the cost of a canteen he got hit for an a statement of charges.

The military changes at a glacial rate. The reason things were the way they were in the past is often valid today.

I posted on the usmilitariaforum.com and the answer was the same as Slufstuff. Its a post ww1 unit identification badge. I would contact the Ft Sill museum and see if they could give you any more information