Having the Dragon 101st Airborne figure set, I thought of using the long-coated ones to represent field MP's. A couple of questions:

1) I read that the long coats were used by mainly the 101st Airborne, but other troops mush have used them too? Especially those who had to stand outside in the cold for long periods of time?

2) I know that soldiers in the field often removed stripes and other rank insignia to avoid making themselves enemy targets. (I read Bill Mauldin's book Up Front where he complained about having to wear his stripes for that reason.) What about unit patches, etc.? I wondered if they would be present on outer coats.

I don't know where you got that mainly the 101 wore long coats but those long wool coats were general issue in the USArmy back then and almost everyone would have had one. Maybe guys that didn't have one would be in a unit that had out-run it's unit supply vehicles carrying the personal baggage but that was kind of rare.
I haven't seen a lot of pics with unit patches being worn or rank for that matter on the coats though.
J

The removal of unit patches was until the end of the so called cold War a habit that even most European theatre NATO units continued to do during field exercises. The reason is obvious: it makes the recognition of troops less easy and hampers to find out the organization. All to make it more difficult for the enemy to indicate their opponent. Furthermore, the lack of shoulder patches during WW2 might also have been created by the re supply system of personel. One was appointed shortly before which unit to go, leaving less time to stich all (peace time) fancy stuff.

Thanks. In my Osprey book on the ETO Army units, some photographs did show soldiers with rank insignia and unit patches while others did not. The painting on the kit box shows neither insignia or patches, so I assumed frontline troops deliberately went without them for the obvious reasons.