Interesting photo of non-regulation wing.

[pfrost]

A friend of mine said he had a photograph of a US pilot wearing WWI-period command pilot wings. I told him that command pilot wings didnt EXIST in WWI and that likely he was confused over the reserve military aviator and military aviator designations....Then he gave me this photo--d'oh!

 

Clearly, its a USAAF pilot (likely a member of one of the troop carrier commands based on his DI), wearing his WWI wings that have been modified into command pilot wings.

 

If a WWI command pilot wing every pops up, here is proof that at least ONE guy wore them like that.

 

Patrick

[pfrost]

Here is the whole picture.

[John Cooper]

Super photo Patrick!!! This will make some "experts" scoff... reminds me of a wing I have in my collection

 

John

[pfrost]

I just wanted to bring this topic back to the top. We have had some interesting vintage pictures to bring up questions of the validity of some wings, now here is a vintage photograph of a wing that was never supposed to be! A WWI command pilot wing.

[John Cooper]

Thanks for brining this back to the surface... never say never!

 

John

[none]

First of all that wing is one of the more common reproductions and has been for years and years, then look at the uniform and it is WWII, the guy in picture had this made during or after WWII. He had a good sense of humor.

[pfrost]

First of all that wing is one of the more common reproductions and has been for years and years, then look at the uniform and it is WWII, the guy in picture had this made during or after WWII. He had a good sense of humor.

 

Boy, I don't know why that wasn't the first thing that came to mind; That sometime during WWI, some pilot went out and bought a fake pair of WWI wings, added the command pilot star and wreath to them, and then had a picture of him wearing them on his uniform as a joke....man, I missed the boat there.

 

Clearly, the idea that a WWI pilot (who I suspect spent his inter-war years as a reservist and then likely went back on active duty sometime just before WWII) and had his old WWI wings modified and wore them instead of the "officially sanctioned" WWII command pilot wings is kind of silly, huh?

 

Yep, this photo clearly shows that WWI pilot wings were being faked as far back as WWII, because we all know that this style of wing was never, EVER made as a command pilot version.

 

Patrick

[doyler]

I know nothing of WW1 one wings.I do know custom stuff was and is still made.As for the photo I am looking at ribbons only

Looks like he has The WW1 victory ribbon and the American defense for ribbons.I am assuming an early setting jugding the ribbons only

 

RON

[pfrost]

Sadly, the ink on the photo has faded so that you can barely make out that this was a photo he gave to his niece, but I can't read his name. But, it looks like he was assigned to a troop carrier command based on what I can see from the DUIs he is wearing.

 

I am convinced that he was a WW pilot who was perhaps a reservist after the war. Then, I suspect he was called back to active duty sometime in the late 30's.

 

The point of the picture is to show that someone took his WWI wing and added the command star and wreath to it and wore it on his uniform. What is really cool about the photo is that you can also see that this wing is one of the classic wing patterns (sometimes seen with the Robbins hallmark).

 

Clearly, this fellow was proud to wear his original WWI wings and had them modified to reflect his command pilot status.

 

We see a lot of discussion about what was regulation and what was not regulation and what people could and could not wear. Clearly, this guy was wearing a very interesting, and very non-regulation wing.

[FW12]

Great photo, thanks for posting it!