USAF Majors uniform donation

[mvmhm]

For about 6 months now, one of the ladies on the Patriot Freedom Festival committee has been telling me about her neighbor wanting to donate her husband's uniforms...she finally dug them out and came out to the museum last week....her husband (James P. Burke) went to the Virginia Military Institute for a year (circa 1955/1956) and then transferred to the Air Force Academy...he went on to become an engineer who worked on automatic landing systems and unmanned drones at Wright-Patterson, where he retired in 1973. Here are his blue and silver/tan uniforms....it looks like he just transferred insignia between the two jackets....the Missileer badger is sterling silver....the hat is a Luxemburger and is mint and in the original box....

[mvmhm]

Next up are his two mess dress uniforms...with all the doo-dads...cummerbund, bow tie, suspenders, shirt, etc....the hat is also mint, a Flight Ace......

[mvmhm]

...and finally, two Air Force Academy jackets, with a 1956 contract date...unfortunately she still has to dig out the shoulder boards, which it seems are scarce as hen's teeth (?)....she also said she has his VMI uniform and will dig it out for me, as well as his personnel file.....I have all the other uniforms (and multiples), but nothing from the Academy, so I "really" hope she finds those boards! I believe he bought these uniforms used from another cadet...the name inside the each one is "Loren E. Lockman, Squadron 22"......so if anyone has one of the early USAFA rosters and can look up either of these guys, that would be groovy! Also, if anyone needs an early Academy uniform, let me know and we can work something out for one of these.....

 

 

Mark sends