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WWII Air Corps A-2 Jacket with Unidentified patch


19delta-uav
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Hello all,

Today I picked up the grouping of J.A. Horsefall. He was a Sergeant Pilot in the early 1940's and around 1942 he became an officer and stayed in the air force until the 70's Today I picked up his sergeant pilot uniform, A-2 Jacket, all of his flight longs, medals, dogtags, and more paperwork than I can shake a stick at. This A-2 Jacket looks like it once belonged to a LT as there is the shadow of LT rank on the collars. There is also the shadow of a name tape and big squadron patch beneath that of the current one. My question ia what unit is the patch from? It has pilots wings and what appears to be arabic writing. Not sure if this patch jacket combination is from his officer days as a transport pilot or as a pilot sergeant. Any information is greatly appreciated. I will show other photos of the grouping when I come back on monday.

post-3881-1298160637.jpg

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Hello all,

Today I picked up the grouping of J.A. Horsefall. He was a Sergeant Pilot in the early 1940's and around 1942 he became an officer and stayed in the air force until the 70's Today I picked up his sergeant pilot uniform, A-2 Jacket, all of his flight longs, medals, dogtags, and more paperwork than I can shake a stick at. This A-2 Jacket looks like it once belonged to a LT as there is the shadow of LT rank on the collars. There is also the shadow of a name tape and big squadron patch beneath that of the current one. My question ia what unit is the patch from? It has pilots wings and what appears to be arabic writing. Not sure if this patch jacket combination is from his officer days as a transport pilot or as a pilot sergeant. Any information is greatly appreciated. I will show other photos of the grouping when I come back on monday.

 

 

Looks like another nice score where did you get it? Like to see some more pictures of the items. :thumbsup:

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Johnny Signor

I don't believe the patc is of any unit per say, it's more of a Pilot wing/ID type , in some areas they would have thier name on a patch in the language of the area they flew in so the "natives" could ID them in case they were shot down/lost/unconcious and could be found and reported .

 

I have seen other name/wing patches like this usually on a rectangluar background with the name in the "foriegn" text .

Johnny

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I don't believe the patc is of any unit per say, it's more of a Pilot wing/ID type , in some areas they would have thier name on a patch in the language of the area they flew in so the "natives" could ID them in case they were shot down/lost/unconcious and could be found and reported .

 

I have seen other name/wing patches like this usually on a rectangluar background with the name in the "foriegn" text .

Johnny

 

Johnny,

You are probably right, we did the same thing in iraq, and although this is arabic, I doubt my interpreter from Iraq would be able to read it. I know he was in French morocco for a while, which is most likely where this came from. Any ideas on translation?

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Looks like another nice score where did you get it? Like to see some more pictures of the items. :thumbsup:

 

What can I say, I just have some great friends that always give me a heads up about this stuff. There was a little more of horesefall's stuff at the auction and I am hopoing a friend of mine was able to pick it up without costing him an arm and a leg. I had to leave early so that I could travel out to The Ohio State University with my girlfriend for one of her sorority alumni functions. All in all a pretty good day, my first A-2 jacket, an awesome grouping for the collection, and drinks with hott sorority girls. what else is there in life?

 

Tim

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I had an A-2 with a 20th bomb suqadron patch and an identical wing patch with Arabic writing. The 20th Bomb Suqadron flew as part of the 2nd bomb group from North Africa and was the first B-17 unit into the theatre of operations. I looked and I don't have any photos, but I traded it to Forum member RRA227 prior to there being a forum at all. He may have photos. The Jacket I had had the US leather name strip on it and was AA Smith and the Arabic , which I had looked at by a UN interpreter, was coloquial to North Africa and translated to "Abu Smith" or son of smith. So the Arabic is the name.

Tom Bowers

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I had an A-2 with a 20th bomb suqadron patch and an identical wing patch with Arabic writing. The 20th Bomb Suqadron flew as part of the 2nd bomb group from North Africa and was the first B-17 unit into the theatre of operations. I looked and I don't have any photos, but I traded it to Forum member RRA227 prior to there being a forum at all. He may have photos. The Jacket I had had the US leather name strip on it and was AA Smith and the Arabic , which I had looked at by a UN interpreter, was coloquial to North Africa and translated to "Abu Smith" or son of smith. So the Arabic is the name.

Tom Bowers

 

Tom,

Thanks for the great information! Hopefully he still has a photo of the jacket, I would love to see it and make some kind of common link. I will also look over his records to see if any of them state where he was to see what matche up. The grouping has a really sweet guidon to a supply unit in It so perhaps that could tell us something. I will post pics either tonight or tomorrow.

 

Tim

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Tom,

Thanks for the great information! Hopefully he still has a photo of the jacket, I would love to see it and make some kind of common link. I will also look over his records to see if any of them state where he was to see what matche up. The grouping has a really sweet guidon to a supply unit in It so perhaps that could tell us something. I will post pics either tonight or tomorrow.

 

Tim

I just remembered that I got it from Rich (RRA227) and later sold it to GM at Bell's Aviation who may still have it in his collection, or at least have the phtots. The wings are identical to the ones on the jacket you posted and they are on the same type of leather patch with the same color backing. On the jacket I used to have, they were on right chest with the 20th patch on the left under the name tape.

Tom Bowers

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Tom,

Thanks again for the information. Hopefully he will stumble across this thread and be willing to share some photos. I have no idea how I would get ahold of him or else I would contact him to see if he could send me a photo. Thanks much!

 

Tim

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Tim,

 

Can we see the rest of the grouping? Looks like you got some phenomenal stuff!

 

Jon

 

Jon,

This afternoon when I get home from class I will photograph everything. The real magnificance of this group is in the paperwork, I have every single flight log he ever used from the 1940's to the 1970s, and every piece of paperwork the military every gave him from 1941 till his retirement. I will photograph it and focus on the wwii stuff as that is what most people are interested in.

 

Tim

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Johnny and all, here is a photo of the rectangualr name tag you are speaking about with name in English, Chinese and Burmese on a CBI jacket in my collection. The name here is RT Stebbins-he was a navigator on a B-24. I concur that the "patch" on 19 delta's jacket is theater made in the same spirit. Kevin

post-21606-1298302550.jpg

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I had to leave early so that I could travel out to The Ohio State University with my girlfriend for one of her sorority alumni functions.

 

Go Bucks!

 

...and sweet jacket.

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