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Experimental Rank Insignia (USAF)


lamebrain
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I recently acquired these from a collector. He said they were at least 1 of 2 experimental rank insignia from the 1950's. They may have been meant to issued to personnel in hazardous jobs i.e. firefighters etc. Can anyone positively identify these?

 

Thanks,

Lamebrain

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DutchInfid3l

Page. 137 in "Into the Blue, Uniforms of the USAF, 1947-Present"
It reads:
Prior to the adoption of the blue and silver grey as official colors for the USAF Enlisted chevrons, various other colors trials were submitted based on the old Army Air Corps colors of orange and blue, and even red and yellow were used for the Marine Corps enlisted chevrons.
Accompanied photo from Book, attributed to the Lackland AFB Airman Heritage Museum
post-5589-0-26345400-1401285539.jpg


They are very rare. Nice find!

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Nah, these were not for the Air Force but for Marines, enlisted Marines in the Marine Air Wings, it was only experimental, but as we can see it did not fly :P

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Page. 137 in "Into the Blue, Uniforms of the USAF, 1947-Present"

It reads:

Prior to the adoption of the blue and silver grey as official colors for the USAF Enlisted chevrons, various other colors trials were submitted based on the old Army Air Corps colors of orange and blue, and even red and yellow were used for the Marine Corps enlisted chevrons.

Acompanied photo from Book, attributed to the Lackland AFB Airman Heritage Museum

006-21.jpg

They are very rare. Nice find!

 

 

I can see the Orange on Blue, but Gold on Red, what was the proposed wear of these going to be on ? Anyway the guy who thought up that color combination of Gold on Red should, to use a line Gregory Peck said in Twelve 0'Clock High " Have His Brain in a Glass Jar at Harvard " because it remembles identicaly the colors of the Marine Corps Dress Blues Enlistedmens ranks, or didn't he notice that :w00t:

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DutchInfid3l

All I know is what book reads; the chevrons were approved for wear before the blue uniform was approved. These designs were one of several presented to 150 NCOs at Bolling AFB in the late-1947 or early-1948.

 

This book is written with the help of several USAF Historians, one of which is attached to the Lackland AFB Airman Heritage Museum for which this photo is attributed to. It's their archives.

 

As to why gold on red? Who knows... maybe the one that suggested it liked the color combo, perhaps he had an admiration for Marines. You're guess is as good as mine.

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All I know is what book reads; the chevrons were approved for wear before the blue uniform was approved. These designs were one of several presented to 150 NCOs at Bolling AFB in the late-1947 or early-1948.

 

This book is written with the help of several USAF Historians, one of which is attached to the Lackland AFB Airman Heritage Museum for which this photo is attributed to. It's their archives.

 

As to why gold on red? Who knows... maybe the one that suggested it liked the color combo, perhaps he had an admiration for Marines. You're guess is as good as mine.

 

My guess is that the new Branch was infiltraited by Marine Officers, who made believe they had transfered over, with the Documents and reassignment orders etc to boot ( all phony of course) , to sabotage and confuse the group designing the new Air Force Uniforms and Insignias :whistling: :lol:

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Yes siree, ya learn something new just about every day on this forum. I've been collecting USAF insignia for nearly 40 years now and have never seen this. Well, some of us thought that the odd-ball colors were manufacturers loom test runs to make sure the chevrons were being embroidered correctly, OR back in years past, these were supposed to be from some Banana Republic Air Force. Finally, at last we have the correct info! :thumbsup:

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  • 3 years later...

I want to move this thread to the top. I am interested to see pictures of these styles of USAF chevrons. I have only seen in person a few, but from the info provided so far, there must be higher rank ones out there.

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By this time of the Air Force's evolution, the Civil Air Patrol, the Air Force's Auxiliary, had already worn red chevrons. At the time, the red was meant to differentiate them from the rest of the Army Air Forces.

 

I wonder, too, if it was not a throwback or just something to do with the Army transitional uniform where the colors of the metal insignia and buttons were gold?

 

Would have really clashed with the blue uniforms -- unless there was something else being planned.

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  • 6 years later...

I know that this is a fairly old thread but...funny story,

I recently acquired two sets of these for the rank of Senior Airman.  One is the blue and orange while the other is the red and gold.  

They came from a long time collector of Air Force items (both WWII and post war) who also served in the Air Force.  The collection consisted of numerous uniforms, insignia, gear, etc. and unfortunately, I was one of the last to "shop" the collection which had been well picked over by other "advanced" collectors. of Air Force memorabilia.  That being said, I was able to acquire a transitional crusher (discovered in the bottom of a box containing 1980's Air Force dress shirts) that had been over-looked as well as these insignia and the above mentioned book "Into the Blue."  I almost didn't by them (the insignia) but they were so odd (and the fact that the individual liquidating the collection told me I could have the hat, book and insignia for $15.00) that I took them.  I can honestly say that they are even brighter in person with the blue and orange really popping!  The color scheme almost identically matches the piping on WWII Army Air Force overseas caps which shows that tie to the old Army Air Force (and was probably why they weren't adopted!   The red and orange stripes are so bright that they hurt your eyes.  These sure would have stood out on the ol' gray/blue bus driver's uniform of the early 50's.

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