I happened to have my camera out and my uniforms accessable as well, so I thought I'd shoot a pic of the cuff in one of my own uniforms. I think I might be the only officer running around with "liberty cuffs" but my tailor in Hong Kong was a real old-school tailor that had been making US Navy uniforms since the 1950s and was more than happy to put cuffs in my uniforms when I had them tailored!!! Thought you all might get a kick out of these - I get dirty looks each time I go to get promoted though as the tailor has to unstitch the cuffs in order to get to the backsides of the liner!

Dave

And inside the cuff. Forgive the flash effect on the patch! (Also, note the patch is up side down... it should be up side down when worn inside the cuff, but right side up when the cuffs are turned back.)

If I can figure out a semi-flattering way to shoot it, I had another uniform tailored with gold silk lining with the same dragons embroidered in the back of it.

Dave,
You're correct! This is the first liberty cuff Officer's uniform I've seen.
Here's a write up I've done on enlisted liberty cuffs, including one Army uniform.
http://www.navydp.com/Navy_Traditions.htm

Mind if I post your photo?
Thanks,
-dan smith

Sure! Use as you'd like!

Dave

Dave: I've renamed this thread to cover officer and enlisted liberty cuffs and maybe we can get some others to post theirs here too. I found this enlisted jumper yesterday at a local thrift store. They had another one last fall but for some dumb reason I passed on it.

This one belong to a career Navy corpsman whose last duty station apparently was the Naval Hospital here at Camp Pendleton. And because the liberty cuffs say "Okinawa" I assume he was always with the Marines there. This jumper has his name custom stitched in the collar and has a zipper on the side to make it easier to put it on (he must have had it tailored for a tight fit).

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Recent addition to collection.
-dan

Here is my only navy jumper with liberty cuffs; Vietnam era.

The bunnies very much do date them - I wonder if today's young sailors, soldiers and Marines ever even see Playboy? It's probably banned on base and they young ones probably see it as something for their grandads to read.....

It dates me, too. I've got the Playboy bunny on my left calf. Courtesy of a San Diego tatoo parlor, circa 1970, in transit to NAVSUPACT-Saigon.

On my first ship, I was the custodian of our wardroom "library" of Playboy. We had a grand total of 128 copies, with no duplicates. Fast forward to today, and that sort of thing (at least to that extent) is pretty tough to find nowadays, but enterprising sailors and soldiers will still find ways of keeping "their mags" around...

Dave

Located next to the 7 Seas Locker Club no doubt

Two blocks away... , and my locker door was full of Playboy centerfolds...the times, they are a'changin...

Well I finally came across another Navy jumper with liberty cuffs - and once again it's a Corpsman and has an Okinawa connection. In this case his duty station rocker says "3RD MLG" which is the 3rd Marine Logistics Group on Okinawa.

Not yet, even though the AAFES is working on banning them.

-Ski

I found this at a thrift store and it impressed me as the flight suit equivalent of liberty cuffs. The unit marked on this - VA 155 - is based in Japan.

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Bet they keep their porn electronically on their iPods, damn I am getting too old!

This comes from the memoirs of a yet to be identified Navy veteran from Fall River, Mass. His ship was the USS COLUMBUS (CA-74), which served two tours in the Far East (Jan.-Apr. 1946 and Jan.-June 1947).

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Like these?

John

I also have this uniform. I wonder where a sailor had to go to get this style?

John

It wasn't so much that China Sailors were alowed to wear Liberty Cuffs. as some ships accepted it more. My father and Uncle served on the next China Station Ship (USS ST. Paul. '47-'49). Liberty cuffs would get your liberty revoked and put on restriction. As fat as the Mermaid cuffs, I got a set of those in a shop in Milington Tennessee in March '73 while stationed there for a school.

Steve Hesson

Times change for sure. When I was in the Navy in 1959-1963 you could buy those in the shops in Thieves Alley, Yokosuka. The guys would either have them sewed on, sewed them on themselves or just kept them as souvenirs. About the only place you could roll your cuffs up to show them were in the "bars" with the girlies. I wish I would have bought a bunch of them!

We've merged some recent Liberty Cuffs posts into this older one.

Here's an older one.

-Ski