Original Items: Only One Grouping Available. This is an exceptional named U.S. military grouping belonging to Robert Ellsworth Lazzell of Morgantown, West Virginia, who entered the U.S. Army as an extraordinarily young Second Lieutenant during WWII, served in combat with the joint American-Canadian First Special Service Force, and ultimately completed a remarkable 33-year Army career encompassing combat service in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

The attribution is particularly strong. A surviving First Special Service Force personnel roster specifically records:

Lazzell, 2nd Lt. Robert E.
Morgantown, West Virginia
Sv Co

The abbreviation Sv Co identifies Service Company, a component of the Force's Service Battalion. A second alphabetical version of the FSSF roster likewise records “2dLt Robert E. Lazzell” with the Service Company abbreviation and Morgantown, West Virginia.

The distinction between the First Special Service Force and the later 1st Special Forces Group is important. Lazzell served with the WWII First Special Service Force, the famous binational American-Canadian formation whose lineage and insignia later became closely incorporated into U.S. Army Special Forces tradition. The U.S. Army traces the Special Forces crossed-arrow insignia and portions of its heraldry directly to the wartime Force.

Included in the grouping are:

• One red First Special Service Force “USA / CANADA” spearhead shoulder patch
• One blue circular Amphibian Training Force 9 / Kiska Task Force “Long Knives” knife patch
• One Canadian-pattern WWII cloth parachutist wing with parachute, wings, and maple leaf
• One original-style FSSF red, white, and blue braided shoulder cord
• One matched pair of gold-tone FSSF crossed-arrow officer collar insignia, each arrow displaying seven feather details
• One gold-tone U.S. officer collar device with patent-marked clutch fasteners
• Four original black-and-white wartime photographs, including two with reported handwritten Italian Campaign identifications

Condition is very good overall for a group more than eighty years old. The red FSSF spearhead remains vivid and retains clearly defined embroidery, showing only scattered loose fibers. The Long Knives patch remains similarly attractive, with strong blue coloration and a well-defined knife device.

The Canadian parachutist wing exhibits more obvious age, including fraying and loose threads around the backing, but the principal embroidered design remains complete. The braided shoulder cord remains substantially intact, with expected discoloration and wear around the red binding at the upper junction.

The crossed-arrow and U.S. collar devices retain an attractive aged brass/gold-tone appearance with normal surface toning. The original-style clutch hardware remains present. The photographs show light toning, minor curling and edge wear, and normal handling marks, but remain clear and highly displayable.

First Special Service Force Insignia

The principal insignia is the immediately recognizable red spearhead patch embroidered USA horizontally and CANADA vertically in white. This was the shoulder sleeve insignia of the First Special Service Force and visually represented the unusual binational character of the organization.

The U.S. Army records that the FSSF was activated on July 9, 1942, and adopted both the red arrowhead shoulder insignia and the crossed arrows as its distinctive branch insignia. These symbols remain important within modern Special Forces heraldry.

Accompanying the patch is a matched pair of gilt-colored crossed-arrow collar devices. The present examples are particularly attractive, with the feathers of the arrows individually represented; each arrow displays seven feather details. The crossed arrows had originally been used by the U.S. Army Indian Scouts before being adopted as the branch insignia of the First Special Service Force. When Special Forces heraldry was developed after WWII, the crossed arrows were deliberately retained as a reference to the FSSF.

Also present is the distinctive long braided shoulder cord (12 ½”) worn by members of the First Special Service Force. Constructed in the Force’s red, white, and blue colors, the cord served as an immediately recognizable part of FSSF uniform identity and is far less commonly encountered today than the better-known red spearhead shoulder patch. This example remains substantially complete, with the intertwined construction and original color sequence still visible despite natural fading.

Amphibian Training Force 9 “Long Knives” Kiska Patch

One of the most interesting pieces in the grouping is the circular blue patch displaying a large vertical fighting knife. This pattern is associated with Amphibian Training Force 9, commanded by Major General Charles H. Corlett and consequently nicknamed “Corlett’s Long Knives.”

The connection to the First Special Service Force is well documented. For the August 1943 invasion of Kiska in the Aleutians, ATF-9 incorporated the FSSF as one of its principal units, with the Force assigned to lead elements of the amphibious operation. The Force landed on Kiska on August 15, 1943, only to discover that the Japanese garrison had secretly evacuated the island on July 29. Although there was consequently no battle against the Japanese defenders, the operation represented the Force's first operational deployment and provided experience in amphibious movement under extremely difficult Aleutian conditions.

Canadian Parachutist Wing

Also included is an attractive Canadian-pattern cloth parachutist wing consisting of an open parachute, outstretched wings, dark border, and yellow-gold maple leaf.

Its presence is especially interesting given the binational nature of the FSSF, but there is an important historical distinction concerning Lazzell himself. His surviving roster entry places him in Service Company, part of the Service Battalion. U.S. Army Special Operations research into the Service Battalion states that while the combat regiments underwent abbreviated parachute qualification training at Fort Harrison, within the Service Battalion only the parachute riggers underwent airborne training. Other Service Battalion personnel still received intensive infantry, weapons, hand-to-hand, obstacle-course, physical, and field training.

We have not located documentation identifying Lazzell as a parachute rigger or otherwise establishing his personal parachute qualification during FSSF service. The Canadian wing is therefore included and described as an associated piece from his grouping, rather than being represented as a badge definitively earned or worn by Lazzell.

U.S. Officer Insignia with B. A. Ballou Patent Clutches

The small gold-tone U.S. officer collar device is accompanied by its original-style clutch fasteners. The backs are particularly useful for dating because they are stamped with numbers corresponding to genuine wartime U.S. patents assigned to B. A. Ballou & Co., Inc.

Patent 2,308,412, for a securing device or “button back,” was filed on May 13, 1942 by Frederick A. Ballou Jr. and Melvin W. Moore and was granted January 12, 1943.

Patent 2,308,424, covering a closely related securing device, was filed May 23, 1942 by Eugene Morehouse, likewise assigned to B. A. Ballou & Co., and was also granted January 12, 1943.

Original Wartime Photographs

Four original black-and-white photographs accompany the insignia and greatly strengthen the personal character of the grouping.

The first is a portrait-format photograph showing a young serviceman seated on a stone wall beside an Italian-style building. In the context of this named collection, the man is believed to be Lazzell. The reverse carries the pencil inscription:

Feb 17, 1945
Italy

The date is noteworthy. The First Special Service Force had already been broken up in southern France in December 1944, after which its American personnel were reassigned or returned to the United States according to their individual circumstances. The February 1945 photograph therefore apparently documents Lazzell's continued wartime service in Italy after his FSSF service, rather than the First Special Service Force itself. Army research records the Force's disbandment on December 5, 1944.

A second photograph shows several soldiers resting in wooded terrain surrounded by packs and field equipment.

A third provides an excellent field view of men, pack animals, tents, cooking equipment, and supplies scattered across extremely rough rocky terrain. It is a particularly evocative image of the logistical realities of campaigning in mountainous country.

The final photograph shows a temporary military bridge or river crossing. The reverse is reported to read:

Volturno River Bridge
Italy

Colonel Robert Ellsworth Lazzell – A Remarkable Three-War Army Career

Robert Ellsworth Lazzell was born August 31, 1924, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Rufus Fenton Lazzell and Wenona Friend Lazzell Brown. His family was associated with Morgantown, West Virginia, which is also the hometown recorded beside his name in the surviving FSSF roster.

He graduated from the Kentucky Military Institute in 1942 as a distinguished honor graduate. Because he had not yet reached military age, he reportedly had to wait until his eighteenth birthday before accepting active service. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant on his eighteenth birthday, August 31, 1942, and immediately volunteered for active duty. A biographical article published only a few years after WWII stated that he was, for a time, said to be the youngest officer in U.S. military service. That wording is best retained as a contemporary claim rather than treated as an independently proven Army record.

He subsequently joined the First Special Service Force, where the surviving roster places him in Service Company. Later biographical records specifically describe his FSSF duty as combat service.

Lazzell left active duty between 1946 and 1950 and attended West Virginia University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. This technical education would become increasingly important during the later portions of his Army career.

With the outbreak of the Korean War, he again volunteered for active duty in 1951 and served in combat with the 45th Infantry Division. His continued Regular Army career can also be independently traced through government records: a 1953 Congressional Record officer listing gives his full name as Robert Ellsworth Lazzell with Army number 065322, and the same number appears beside Robert E. Lazzell in a 1957 listing.

Following Korea, he completed advanced infantry schooling at Fort Benning in 1954 and subsequently spent several years along the East-West German frontier working as a senior electronics-surveillance officer and in the development of surveillance equipment. By 1959 he was a Captain assigned to the 51st Infantry at Ulm, Germany. A contemporary notice records that his wife Lucille and their children accompanied him and that their son Harlan Selby Lazzell was born while the family was in Germany.

His combination of infantry experience and electrical-engineering training increasingly moved his career toward research and development. He graduated from the Research and Development Project Manager Course at Fort Lee in 1963. In 1966, however, he again volunteered for combat duty, this time in Vietnam. He completed two Vietnam tours and served in combat with the 9th Infantry Division.

After Vietnam, Lazzell graduated from the Armed Forces Staff College in 1968 and moved into senior Army research-and-development assignments. By 1970, an official Army Research and Development publication identified Colonel Robert E. Lazzell as Chief of the Plans Division, Office of the Chief of Research and Development, as well as the Army representative to the tri-service Tactical Warfare Research Advisory Committee management group.

By 1971 he was serving as Chief of the Army Information Systems Office, with responsibilities involving the Army Research and Development Information System, automated R&D management systems, scientific and technical information, and related Army-wide information functions. The Army publication specifically included among the office chief's responsibilities service as Army Director of Technical Information.

From 1972 through 1974, Lazzell was assigned through the Office of the Secretary of Defense as a research-and-development adviser to senior U.S. and United Nations command leadership in Korea. Contemporary records independently place his family in Seoul, Korea, during this period.

He retired from the Army in December 1975, completing approximately 33 years of military association and service stretching from the Second World War into the post-Vietnam era.

Perhaps the most remarkable distinction of Lazzell's career was his receipt of the Combat Infantryman Badge on three separate occasions, representing qualifying combat infantry service during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.