As far as collecting militaria goes I have never been a naval minded person; maybe because I never liked naval uniforms. So when I stumbled across this USS Wisconsin crew member lapel button I was forced to think naval. First the Wisconsin was launched in Dec. of 1943 and served well through the remainder of the Second World War and then during the Korean War‘s so called “Police Action.” In 1986 the ship was reactivated and modernized, served during the war with Iraq and was again mothballed to save money. Now the ship is again considered obsolete and it is doubtful that it will ever see action again. Ships of the navy have huge crews, the Wisconsin for example had a crew of almost 2000. Since most sailors in uniform look pretty much alike and often times more than one navy ship will be in any one port at the same time it could get confusing and time consuming for sentries to have to check the papers of each sailor before letting them board a ship especially when large numbers of them show up at once. The crew identification button sounds like a good idea to me. The only thing I don’t know is if my conjecture about this button is correct.