Iraqi Insignia Need help to ID

[Bob Chatt]

Yesterday in my shop a guy walked in with a decent size box of Iraqi insignia. It looks like some older stuff, but after reading through the Iraqi posts here and on the forum dedicated to Iraqi items, I thought I should ask questions.

In the first photo, the three sets of collar tabs(?), two are green and one is navy blue, look to be of a better qulaity construction.
The patch is machine embroidered on black velvet. The other is a silk woven, like bevo.
The two small flag pins are pretty poor in construction, and have thin safety pin backs. The collar badge(?), is thin stamped and poorly made.
The laquered looking, brass flag pins, that are longer, look slightly better made.
Not sure if the other two pieces are coins or not?

In the second photo:
I think the patch is Popular army and is bullion with snaps on the back. Plus there are two enamelled badges, one has a silver colored background and the other has a gold colored background. Are these different ranks?
From what little research I did I believe the longer badge is Mother Of Battle(?), but again really a trashy construction. Same with the medal. I believe it is for the same thing but compared to what I was able to find the ribbon colors are wrong.
The last is like a FOB with a clear coating across the center of it.

Besides these shown there were different should slip-ons, some were silkm woven and some machine embroidered, some shoulder cords, misc. stamps, collar devices, and a few other small items.
While reading some other postings I read where there is a lot of the items being remade to sell to tourists/ soldiers. Is that what some of this stuff is? Would also like to know what the different badges and patches mean.
Thank you in advance for any info.
Bob

[thefallenbuddha]

Ok, nobody seems to be weighing in on this so far, so I'll add my two cents.
I don't really know about all the items, but for the first photo:

The three sets of collar ranks: the green are for army and the blue ones are for air force or police. These ranks are still used, but most post-Saddam is cloth, and doesn't have metal pips.

The flag patch in the shape of the country is a police as well as a People's Army/Defense patch.

The badge next to the flag country shaped patch is a medical branch insignia.


For the second photo:
The large bullion patch is for the People's Army, which was an armed wing of the Ba'ath party.

The Mother of All Battles badge was for enlisted personnel (other badges, mostly political exist with the same shape and basic design with different script and caricatures) and the medal with ribbon was for officers and senior civil officials. The medal is for the Mother of All Battles (the Iran-Iraq version does not have the script), but I do not know what the ribbon is for, but it is not the known issue one, which would be in the national colors of red, white, and black with a green stripe running down the middle, which you know.

....As always though, I cannot be trusted and everything I say is up for debate.

[McCulloh]

Dude !!
SGT. Lorenzo must have missed this!
Tha's a NICE haul of original Ba'athist militia stuff (although the ribbon is crap-it's actually not bad in and of itself as a replacement for a differnt medal!
The Popular Army pins are awesome and getting harder to find-very hard in fact! They are to the left of the UBER_RARE Popular army bullion patch. THAT is a prize!
The Iraqi Popular Army was reserve militia called up in the Iran-Iraq war to secure rear areas...very thuggish and sometimes brutal in their operations.

For other insights and identification, try the OMSA.org database.

[thefallenbuddha]

Yes, as always, Bob has UBER RARE things. He's got pretty gnarly Fedayeen lid props and some killer sweet wicked rad Republican Guard threads badged up to the bling-bling I got to check out when I was chillin' and gettin' the 4-1-1 at his crib a while back.
A lot o' his s**ts crazy, bro.

[McCulloh]

realy? I'd LOVE to see the Republican Guard stuff. Most of the bling was added later, but some of the dress uniforms pulled out of lockers is way cool. Wait intil Sgt. Luna sees this thread.
Bob-are you ever on the Iraqi forum? There's an awesome threa there about the Peoples' Army.

[Bob Chatt]

Guys, thanks for the info. I have gone on the Iraqi forum a couple of times and found reference to some of these badges there.
Darwin, I will show you this stuff next time you come in.
Bob