Eric,
The top one is a "1st Class Hospital Corpsman." ( IIRC, during WW2, as well as before, the Rating was called "Pharmacist Mate." This "Doc" (term of GREAT respect given to HM's by Marines!) was a 1st Class Petty Officer, an E-6.
The second one is a "1st Class Stewards Mate." I've really never been at ease with this Rating. This Rating are basically servants, and when I was an "Anchor Clanker" only non-whites could hold this rating. Maybe Naval Officers were, back then, to...ah, what shall I say... to get their own coffee, or load their own dinner plate, or shine their own shoes...
It may have changed by now. I don't know.
Opps. Sorry about the rant. Hope this helps ID the patches for you.
As Always, All the Best,
Gunny John
PS. I think the Army and the Navy still use the differentiating phrase "Officers and Men." Not the Corps; just "Marines." In the field junior Marines eat first. And the most senior gets his chow issue last...and, from the same trough. It's a sin to eat before your snuffies eat! Only in the rear does higher rank eat first. I remember the first morning our unit had come back Stateside from Desert Storm and I and Gunny R. walked to the chow hall at LeJeune for Breakfast. We walked to the end of the very long line. And all our guys insisted that we move up to the front of the line. They remembered that we had always made sure that they got their chow first in the desert, and they would not stand for us not to have it first now.
Gunny R. and I realized it would be insulting to these wonderful Marines not to accept the gift/right that they insisted we take. Gunny R. and I were a little misty-eyed at that first breakfast back from the sh8t-hole. And that Marine Corps chow was GREAT!
I'll bet the other NCO's all have similar stories they could tell.
John
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