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$7 flight jacket, what is it?


theschneid88
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Paid $7.25 for this jacket today. I'm not very familiar with USAF items, I'm guessing 50s-60s. Tag reads:

 

JACKET, FLYING, MAN'S NYLON TWILL

SAGE GREEN USAF 1151 TYPE N-3B

SPEC MIL-J-6279F (USAF) SIZE MEDIUM

8415-269-0419

DSA-1-8185

SOUTHERN ATHLETIC COMPANY, INC

DRY CLEAN ONLY

 

zippers are conmar. What do I have here? I may wear it, seems damn warm, unless its got some value. Whats the fur trim? Wolf? (would make me mad, but I guess its from another time) Looks to be new unissued. Found a stock tag in pocket that fell to pieces.

 

DSC01767.jpg

 

DSC01770.jpg

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Manchu Warrior

No expert but I will fill you in with what I know. No date on the DSA line so I believe that your coat dates to the early 1960's. And it also looks like real fur around the hood which makes the coat more valuble.

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Great price you didn't go wrong. You should be able to find this on ebay. Just make sure the tag is white like yours. There is an earlier version of this jacket that is worth more money.

 

M

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The coat that brings the biggest price has the black and gold label and even bigger is the olive drab one. This coat is not 60's but 70's. It is the sage green example. Should bring 50 to 150.00. The higher end for great condition and good size.

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White Label is the first indication around the Vietnam era to Post Nam. DSA =Defense Supply Agency, MFG from 1962 to 1977. Great purchase price.

 

Big Daddy

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Classic Air Force N3B parka. These bring ridiculous prices on eBay, especially in decent sizes.

 

 

 

Is this meant to be more of a ground personnel parka, or is this a piece of flight gear?

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Paid $7.25 for this jacket today. I'm not very familiar with USAF items, I'm guessing 50s-60s. Tag reads:

 

JACKET, FLYING, MAN'S NYLON TWILL

SAGE GREEN USAF 1151 TYPE N-3B

SPEC MIL-J-6279F (USAF) SIZE MEDIUM

8415-269-0419

DSA-1-8185

SOUTHERN ATHLETIC COMPANY, INC

DRY CLEAN ONLY

 

zippers are conmar. What do I have here? I may wear it, seems damn warm, unless its got some value. Whats the fur trim? Wolf? (would make me mad, but I guess its from another time) Looks to be new unissued. Found a stock tag in pocket that fell to pieces.

 

DSC01767.jpg

 

DSC01770.jpg

 

Don't worry no animals were harmed in the fabrication of this garment. The fur or....hair was provided by a company named Soylent Green, Ind.

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Don't worry no animals were harmed in the fabrication of this garment. The fur or....hair was provided by a company named Soylent Green, Ind.

 

Soylent Green? I thought they only made crackers.

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Soylent Green? I thought they only made crackers.

 

 

That was a great and funny comment. 7.00 for a nice parka outstanding. I remember wearing those in cold weather survival school in Maine in February. They kept you toasty warm but could get quite hot while marching in the mountains in 3 feet of snow with bear snow shoes. In Adak Alaska I wore them too and they were very comfortable. Though we were usually walking from building to building or hangar.

 

I think mine was prob the Navy or USMC type now that I think about it.....

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Great buy. The parka or its fake fur cousin was issued to almost everyone who was stationed on a northern tier SAC base or Alaska. My first one was issued to me at FE Warren AFB Wy. They will keep you warm at -99 below with a wind chill or -40 without. Thats the coldest I've ever seen.

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For just $7 that was an absolute steal! :w00t: I've got one with a coyote fur trim...nicer than the synthetic ones which followed. I wear it every winter...warm and very comfortable!

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For just $7 that was an absolute steal! :w00t: I've got one with a coyote fur trim...nicer than the synthetic ones which followed. I wear it every winter...warm and very comfortable!

 

 

 

I'm pretty sure the fur on this one is cyote, growing up on the farm I have seen plenty of those critters running about in thier alive form. Yeah I walked into the store, looked around, saw nothing then on the way out from accross the floor the "militaria radar" went off, ran over saw the price and did my evil laugh :lol: I may keep this one in reserve here, Colorado has some cold days now and then.

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Alpha still make them for sale to the civilian market. Exact miltary spec, just over-produced for out-sales. The giveaway is the small black/gold Alpha logo tab sewn into the edge of the pen pocket.

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General Apathy
Paid $7.25 for this jacket today. I'm not very familiar with USAF items, I'm guessing 50s-60s. zippers are conmar. What do I have here? I may wear it, seems damn warm, unless its got some value. Whats the fur trim? Wolf? (would make me mad, but I guess its from another time) Looks to be new unissued. Found a stock tag in pocket that fell to pieces.

 

Well done schneid88, it probably cost me more than double your purchase price just to have mine dry-cleaned ready for this winters wear. :lol:

 

lewis

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I'm pretty sure the fur on this one is cyote, growing up on the farm I have seen plenty of those critters running about in thier alive form. Yeah I walked into the store, looked around, saw nothing then on the way out from accross the floor the "militaria radar" went off, ran over saw the price and did my evil laugh :lol: I may keep this one in reserve here, Colorado has some cold days now and then.

 

 

Don't you love it when the militaria radar sounds?! Second only to the smell of good old web gear! congrats just in case you need Christmas money.

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Here you go. For 25 x $7 you could have this! ;)

 

http://www.alphaindustries.com/Mens-Flight...Cotton-N-3B.asp

 

Well, that one does come with a spiffy Remove Before Flight key chain at that price!

 

I've always been told the N3B was for ground crews and the short waist N2B was for flight crews. My N2B specificly says Aircrew on its label. Always been told it was wolf fur and always thought that to be true.

 

Steve

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Well, that one does come with a spiffy Remove Before Flight key chain at that price!

 

I've always been told the N3B was for ground crews and the short waist N2B was for flight crews. My N2B specificly says Aircrew on its label. Always been told it was wolf fur and always thought that to be true.

 

Steve

 

I think you might be right about wolf-fur Steve. I used the term "coyote fur" as I'd read it somewhere...and not being a resident of the US where those pesky critters are indigenous I know no different. However...the fur on mine is quite long (and tickly!) with a grey-ish hue so it may well be wolf rather than coyote...which are brown? :think:

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I think you might be right about wolf-fur Steve. I used the term "coyote fur" as I'd read it somewhere...and not being a resident of the US where those pesky critters are indigenous I know no different. However...the fur on mine is quite long (and tickly!) with a grey-ish hue so it may well be wolf rather than coyote...which are brown? :think:

 

Be glad you do not have coyotes in the UK. Them suckers adapt very well to civilization and can wipe out a free roaming cat population in no time. It is a treat to listen to them howl and yip late at night though.

 

On the hood trim, I cannot say for sure if it is wolf or coyote, just that I have always been told it was wolf. You may know that at one trim here in the US, wolfs were hunted big time and the government would pay a bounty on the carcass. Seemed likely to me that they took the skins and used them for the hoods.

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Well, that one does come with a spiffy Remove Before Flight key chain at that price!

 

I've always been told the N3B was for ground crews and the short waist N2B was for flight crews. My N2B specificly says Aircrew on its label. Always been told it was wolf fur and always thought that to be true.

 

Steve

 

 

Could be, looks like cyote to me. When I was a kid on the farm in NE Colorado, I remember either the State or Federal Govt offering good money for cyote pelts, (again different time, this was the mid 1970s) and my granda used to clean up some serious $ on those, I always wondered what happened to the pelts, maybe the gov't bought them for just this kind of thing.

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I did some surfing since reading this thread to see if i could dig up anything concrete of what type fur was used on these.

 

Seems like both pelts were used over the years. The info I found did not give dates of the changes but they started out using wolf fur, then changed to coyote and finally synthetic fur. I came away with 1950s era would be wolf, 1960s & 1970s would be coyote and then the ugly (IMO) white syntetic. Your idea of yours being coyote is dead on!

 

Steve

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