bellasilva Posted April 5, 2013 Share #1 Posted April 5, 2013 Some of you may have seen my post from a couple of weeks ago regarding my antique shop find of the dog tags and some paperwork and newspaper clippings to Sgt. Clarence H. Paine, an aircraft armorer with the 8th Air Force. I'll post a couple of pictures of that group for posterity's sake. It turns out the pilot of the P-51 Mustang that Sgt. Paine was an armorer for recently authored a book detailing his experience training the very first Israeli Air Force cadets in 1948. While browsing that same antique shop today, I was on my way out with a couple of ERDL coats when I happened upon a WWII Ike. I didn't think much of it but something made me turn around, drop the ERDLs, and give the Ike a closer look. What I found was a 6/12/44 dated jacket with a beautiful 8th Air Force SSI. The jacket itself was in magnificent condition, absolutely no mothing. When I opened it up, what do I find? "C. H. Paine 19161492" I was absolutely ecstatic. What are the chances? Needless to say I left the ERDLs and purchased the jacket. It is now hanging proudly on my display wall with Paine's 42-43 dated dog tags hanging around it. Enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellasilva Posted April 5, 2013 Author Share #2 Posted April 5, 2013 More Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellasilva Posted April 5, 2013 Author Share #3 Posted April 5, 2013 More Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellasilva Posted April 5, 2013 Author Share #4 Posted April 5, 2013 More Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellasilva Posted April 5, 2013 Author Share #5 Posted April 5, 2013 And here is the pilot, George Lichter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted April 5, 2013 Share #6 Posted April 5, 2013 A fortuitous find! (British-made 8th AF patch.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyCanteen Posted April 5, 2013 Share #7 Posted April 5, 2013 Great find! It's always nice to see items reunited, hopefully you'll be able to find more to re-assemble the grouping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellasilva Posted April 5, 2013 Author Share #8 Posted April 5, 2013 Thanks! Sabrejet, I'm not really well versed on patches yet. How do you tell the patch is British made? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted April 5, 2013 Share #9 Posted April 5, 2013 Well...I'm British (which helps!) and a long-time patch collector. You just get to know these things! Here's a similar one on one of my uniforms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRR Posted April 5, 2013 Share #10 Posted April 5, 2013 Nice find! Quite the grouping you are putting together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellasilva Posted April 5, 2013 Author Share #11 Posted April 5, 2013 Well...I'm British (which helps!) and a long-time patch collector. You just get to know these things! Here's a similar one on one of my uniforms. That works! Thanks for the comments gents. This antique shop is getting to have some killer militaria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
38Driver Posted April 5, 2013 Share #12 Posted April 5, 2013 Looks like we did his work for the yellow nosed Mustang drivers of the 361st FG. Great stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellasilva Posted April 5, 2013 Author Share #13 Posted April 5, 2013 Sure is. I'm wondering if the vendor who had his items for sale had some sort of connection to Sgt. Paine. Needless to say I'll be frequenting his booth more often now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kpaintner Posted April 6, 2013 Share #14 Posted April 6, 2013 Nice grouping and great to see this stuff did not get split up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jr. Collector Posted April 6, 2013 Share #15 Posted April 6, 2013 Awesome find! very cool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strawberry 9 Posted April 6, 2013 Share #16 Posted April 6, 2013 Very nice! I'd give that vendor my card and tell him to call you if more comes in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeeBee37 Posted April 6, 2013 Share #17 Posted April 6, 2013 And here is the pilot, George Lichter. Amazing ! That picture makes the cover of the book about Lichter's story: http://www.amazon.co...s/dp/1479352853 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilHistNut Posted April 6, 2013 Share #18 Posted April 6, 2013 It's amazing to be able put back together the items after such a long time. Always possible, but seldom happens. Love the documention of the pics, Jack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jguy1986 Posted April 6, 2013 Share #19 Posted April 6, 2013 Sure is. I'm wondering if the vendor who had his items for sale had some sort of connection to Sgt. Paine. Needless to say I'll be frequenting his booth more often now. Talk to the owner of the store, and see if he or she can pass along a message that you'd be interested in anything else of Sgt. Paine's -- you might get lucky, especially if everything's been popping up a piece at a time. I hate to think of all the things put into stores that get split up, so I'm glad that the pieces will be staying together. -- Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waltz41 Posted April 9, 2013 Share #20 Posted April 9, 2013 Great find. The story of finding the items just adds to the items. Nice job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDK Posted April 9, 2013 Share #21 Posted April 9, 2013 Very nice and congrats on the latest addition! Sometimes I think some of these items find us. It seems you were meant to keep his items together. JD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellasilva Posted April 12, 2013 Author Share #22 Posted April 12, 2013 Thanks for the comments gents. Come to think of it, I have to swing by there again. I remember seeing a wool enlisted man's shirt with a ruptured duck, I wonder if it belongs to Sgt. Paine as well. I'll keep the thread updated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellasilva Posted April 20, 2013 Author Share #23 Posted April 20, 2013 Well gentlemen, I've finally learned to trust my gut. I stopped by the same antique shop today to take a look at that wool enlisted man's shirt I noticed when I bought Sgt. Paine's ike jacket. At first I didn't see it and my heart sank but then I noticed it was only hidden from view by a few other uniforms. So I take it down off the hanger and notice that it also came with a set of wool trousers. I looked on the inside of the neck of the shirt and what do I find? Well there's starting to be a rhythm here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellasilva Posted April 20, 2013 Author Share #24 Posted April 20, 2013 So I took a look at the trousers as well and, of course I find... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellasilva Posted April 20, 2013 Author Share #25 Posted April 20, 2013 Everything is basically stock mint. There is only 1 small moth hole on the shirt. Other than that, I am ecstatic! Here's the last couple of shots. The trousers are pretty early dated (January 1942). Also the shirt has the ghost of an SSI, presumably 8th AF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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