A few A-2's from the collection

[Andrew]

Wow, what a wonderful collection of painted jackets you/ve got there Jon, all of those deserve to be featured in a Maguires type book. Just goes to show that there must be hundreds of jackets out there of this calibre. Thanks very much for posting these, they really are museum quality and it's great that you are willing to share them.

A couple of questions;
- how do you keep/ store/ display your jackets. Preservation/ stabilization is something that's often talked about here.
- where did you manage to find them all- don't need your secrets just some tantilizing stories. Did you manage to get to meet the owners of any?
- With your obvious experience with handling orignal painted jackets i'd be really interested to hear your opinion on this discussion; viewtopic.php?f=20&t=4633&start=10
Not meaning to drag you into a discussion just after you've walked in the door but you are probably better placed to comment than most of us. None of the jackets you've shown exhibit similar wear to the ones in that thread. If you do have an example i'd love to see it.

That last one is amazing but I too love the simplicity of Dream girl. It's along the same lines as my now only painted A-2,

 

[johnwayne]

Hey Jon
As a fan of A2s for more years than I'll admit I've always wondered what my my holy grail of an A2 might be and you appear to have several!! Superb Jon and thanks for sharing them and making me just that bit envious!!!!!

Wayne

 

[CBI]

Jon - congrats on an excellent collection. Unless I missed it somewhere, how many A-2's do you own?

 

[Dr H]

This jacket belonged to Wilber Gooder of the 461st bomb group, attached to the 15th AAF. I received this jacket from Mrs. Gooder after Wilber passed away. I asked her if her first name was Ann, since that was the name on the back of the jacket. She indicated that her name was not Ann, that the name and the pin-up on the back of the jacket was Ann Rooney, a Hollywood starlet that had visited her husbands base during a USO show. This is one of my favorite jackets, I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do. Jon

Very fine jackets all Jon - lovely jacket art featuring Ann Rooney, although I have to say she was prettier in the flesh than depicted: http://www.celebrantpam.com/memorials/annrooney.html 'In fact, in 1945, she took part in a USO Tour during World War II. Ann departed Seattle and performed throughout many of the South Pacific Islands. The troops loved her so much, one of the squadrons voted her their favorite pinup girl. Ann was proud of her work for the troops because she knew in her heart she was meant to help others through her talents.'
The info ties up with your USO story...
Cheers
Ian

 

[JGC]

This is a 8th AAF grouping that I picked up about a 2 months ago, I actually carried it down from the attic. I just wish I would have been able to talk to Sgt Tomlinson before he passed, his wife told me that he was very proud of his time in the service and he liked to talk to anyone that would listen. I hope you like it, Jon

 

[JGC]

This A-2 is not named, but if it could speak I'm sure it could tell an interesting story. It has a fantastic 14th airforce leather patch on the front, and a silk blood chit sewn on the back. Hope you enjoy, Jon

 

[JGC]

Here's another A-2 that's unnamed to a Lt. in the 44th Bomb Group, attached to the 8th airforce in England. The jacket is in fairly good condition, it appears this is the 2nd flying 8-Ball patch that might have been on this jacket. You can see where the stitching was present for the beak of the first patch. The name tag has been removed. The back is painted Southern Comfort III rd. Its hard to tell whats painted in the center of the jacket, It appears it might be the tail of a B-24 with something flying around it.

 

[SuinBruin]

Fantastic jackets. Thanks for taking the time and effort to share them with us.

 

[JGC]

Wow, what a wonderful collection of painted jackets you/ve got there Jon, all of those deserve to be featured in a Maguires type book. Just goes to show that there must be hundreds of jackets out there of this calibre. Thanks very much for posting these, they really are museum quality and it's great that you are willing to share them.

A couple of questions;
- how do you keep/ store/ display your jackets. Preservation/ stabilization is something that's often talked about here.
- where did you manage to find them all- don't need your secrets just some tantilizing stories. Did you manage to get to meet the owners of any?
- With your obvious experience with handling orignal painted jackets i'd be really interested to hear your opinion on this discussion; viewtopic.php?f=20&t=4633&start=10
Not meaning to drag you into a discussion just after you've walked in the door but you are probably better placed to comment than most of us. None of the jackets you've shown exhibit similar wear to the ones in that thread. If you do have an example i'd love to see it.

That last one is amazing but I too love the simplicity of Dream girl. It's along the same lines as my now only painted A-2,

Thanks for the compliments on my jackets. I think that since I 'm the new guy on the block I'll pass on your question regarding the authenticity of the jackets you mentioned. From the looks of this forum I think there are probably many more suited for answering those questions then I. As far as your other question regarding where I got most of these jackets, I'll be glad to shead a little lite on that. Most all of my jackets were direct buys from the vets or their families, and some I got from other military collectors by way of trade or outright purchase. As I said in my first post I've been at this for about 35years, I guess if you do anything for that long your apt to stumble onto a few things of interest. I hope I don't wear out my welcome, its been fun posting pictures of my collection. Many of these jackets are being seen for the first time, I've always felt if you can't share whats the point of having them. Again thanks for the welcome, Jon

 

[Andrew]

Thanks for the compliments on my jackets. I think that since I 'm the new guy on the block I'll pass on your question regarding the authenticity of the jackets you mentioned. From the looks of this forum I think there are probably many more suited for answering those questions then I. As far as your other question regarding where I got most of these jackets, I'll be glad to shead a little lite on that. Most all of my jackets were direct buys from the vets or their families, and some I got from other military collectors by way of trade or outright purchase. As I said in my first post I've been at this for about 35years, I guess if you do anything for that long your apt to stumble onto a few things of interest. I hope I don't wear out my welcome, its been fun posting pictures of my collection. Many of these jackets are being seen for the first time, I've always felt if you can't share whats the point of having them. Again thanks for the welcome, Jon

I think we'd all appreciate seeing what else you might have, it takes time to get it all out, take the pictures and post them. Sometimes it's a while between drinks getting a chance to see some really great jackets.

 

[JGC]

This next jacket is quite special, and its probably in the worst overall condition. Its named to A.R. Smith, a glider pilot with the 436th Troop Carrier Group, attached to the 9th AAF in England. Ray, or Rhode Island Red as he was nicknamed, wore this jacket in 4 Glider landings during WWII. He transported members of the 82nd airborne into Normandy for D-day, and members of the 101st airborne into Holland for operation Market Garden. He also participated in the airborne landings in Southern France, and across the Rhine River into Germany with operation Varsity. Red is the man kneeling on the left in the picture of his Waco Glider, also named Rhode Island Red. The last picture is of Red at the age of 80 when I acquired this jacket from him in 1999. There is something written across the back of the jacket that I can't quite make out, because of Red's failing memory he couldn't remember what it was. His nick name is painted on the right breast, it is still legible, the squadron patch is not legible. He told me the he had the knit cuffs replaced with leather ones while stationed in Paris. his exact words to me were,"If only this jacket could talk".

 

[greyhound52]

Great story on this jacket. What a guy to have survived all those operations as a glider pilot.

 

[Andrew]

Amazing. Tough looking ceegar smoking dude. How did it actually work once they landed?

Did these Pilots somehow hightail it back to safer locations and get themselves back to England to fly other missions? I always assumed they just became part of the fight after landing...

 

[Anonymous]

Nice jacket thanks for posting ,what intreresting with them none of the paintings exhibiit that sanded wear mark seen on the ebay items just sold by the Canadian seller.

Rgds Jeff

 

[navvet]

I really appreciate your sharing of these fine photos. Thanks for your efforts to preserve such historical items.

 

[Roughwear]

Nice jacket thanks for posting ,what intreresting with them none of the paintings exhibiit that sanded wear mark seen on the ebay items just sold by the Canadian seller.

Rgds Jeff

Interesting point you make Jeff. These jackets were painted in the war when the wear to the paint was natural rather than encouraged!

 

[JGC]

Amazing. Tough looking ceegar smoking dude. How did it actually work once they landed?

Did these Pilots somehow hightail it back to safer locations and get themselves back to England to fly other missions? I always assumed they just became part of the fight after landing...

I believe they would fight with the ground troops until they could be evacuated. Depending on where they landed it may be days or weeks before they could make it to a location for evac. Red was definetly a tough looking guy, I imagine he could hold his own with the airborne troopers.

 

[JGC]

I thought I'd post my only Korean War A-2. This jacket belonged to Major Laurence "Tiger" Herman. Lt Herman first saw action in Korean as a member of the 6147th Tactical Control Group, or Mosquitos. He flew over 100 missions above the 38th parallel in his T-6. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters. I'm not quite sure why he had the Canadian patch, but it is what it is.

 

[JGC]

I've had this jacket for a few years, but only recently was able to research its original owner. Its named to Lt George Dietz, a bombardier on a B-24, attached to the 513th Bomb Squadron, 376th Bomb Group. Lt Dietz is pictured in the back row, far right.

 

[greyhound52]

Wow another nice group of jackets. It is great to have the owner's history with the jacket.