Liberty Cuffs

[Garandomatic]

When I first discovered the existence of these, it really captivated me and lead to yet another focus in collecting. I usually go for history, so I have been known to go all out to pick up an otherwise nondescript WWII Navy jumper just because the guy was on a significant ship. With the liberty cuffs, you also get some insight into the man's personality, and open yourself, as a collector, to a wide arena of variations to go after. These are the uniforms I have with liberty cuffs, anybody else with an interesting set, go ahead and post away.

 

First up is a man that served on the USS Thuban post-WWII, and was a grouping of two jumpers from the ship with different cuffs. The first is the standard dragon that you are most likely to see.

[Garandomatic]

The other cuff on the first jumper has the same dragon on it, by the way. The other jumper has a pair of polar bears, which I thought was pretty interesting. Not sure how these connect with the Thuban, as she was in the Aleutians, but probably before this man served, but wikipedia isn't the best source for ship research!

[Garandomatic]

Next might be my alltime favorite. Vet served on the USS Fall River, and must have witnessed a some pretty interesting stuff...

[Garandomatic]

Next are a pair from the jumper of a man that served on the USS Howard W. Gilmore around the time of the Vietnam War.

[Garandomatic]

Next is a slightly more attractive mermaid on a Coastie's jumper. Unfortunately, his last name is obscured.

[Garandomatic]

Coastie's other sleeve:

[Garandomatic]

Up next is my first uniform with Liberty Cuffs. Man served on or was transported on the USS Winged Arrow at the end of WWII.

[Garandomatic]

Next is a late war man that served on LST 283 and LCI(L) 687 just after hostilities. I pasted a picture of his Amphib patch, which is made of a red HBT material. Pretty interesting.

[Garandomatic]

Last in the collection is pretty nicely outfitted with the Seabee insignia and the somewhat hard to find China Occupation Ribbon.

[hink441]

Great collection !! I especially like the Bikini Atoll cuff. Never seen that one before !!

 

Chris

[sigsaye]

A shipmate of mine had the polar bear cuff in the early '70s. He got it because he was from Alaska. His other cuff was a shamrock or a Leprechaun with a shamrock because his name was Irish in origin. Sometimes the only significance with cuffs is that this Sailor just likes the design.

[Garandomatic]

Therein lies some of my interest, even i I never discover the connection. Anybody have any other variations, or even more obscure or ship-specific cuffs in their collection?

[firefighter]

Nice group of liberty cuff's.The Bikini is really cool.At first I thought it was directly sewn to the cuff.But after looking at it closely I see that it isn't.Interesting to that some times it's just a sailors preference.Do they still wear liberty cuffs? If not when did they stop?

[Garandomatic]

I think they are pretty scarce today, but I bought the wife's nephew a set when he was set to go in, but a baseball accident shattered a knuckle and messed up his plans. At best, he will have to go through the process (meps, etc) again, but he may have to switch services or something due to the injury.

[carnut63]

I like the red dragon one the best, i dont know if i have ever seen that one before.

[firefighter]

I like the red dragon one the best, i dont know if i have ever seen that one before.

 

 

That is a nice one.The Chinese made ones have nice detail.

[sigsaye]

I had the first mermaid and a shark in one jumper which were standard store bought. I had another jumper with a set I had made while stationed in Japan. They were an eagle with American shield and in the other cuff was a Japanese dragon both sets are somewhere on the four. As far as when they fell out of use, mostly by the early 1980s. In '73, the Navy put all enlisted in the CPO style uniform and authorize civilian clothes for all hands. Thus, the tradition died out as dress uniforms only were worn for some watches and inspections. In 1980, the Navy returned our jumper uniforms to us, and there were some old guys (me included) who revived their cuffs, and some of our boys liked them too. But the places where we got them had closed or stopped making them. It just became too much effort for something basically frivolous.

[subsystem4]

I really like liberty cuffs. That Bikini atoll LC is really cool.

-Jay

[Johnnymac]

 

[firefighter]

I like the Popeye with shamrock, Submarine and Pirate with skull's & cross bones.Very nice and impressive group of liberty cuff's.

[navyman]

_{Therein lies some of my interest, even i I never discover the connection. Anybody have any other variations, or even more obscure or ship-specific cuffs in their collection?}

 

_{You got some nice jumpers. I have a few too and I like the ones that have the dragon or other embroidery work done under the jumper flap.}

_{Nice collection!}

 

_Jason

[paulyp99]

I've posted this one when I got it,but I'll post it here too. Not only are there liberty cuffs but a great piece under the flap.

 

 

[Sabrejet]

VN era Hospital Corpsman's uniform.

[irish]

There is a booklet out on Liberty Cuffs, not sure if anyone has seen it. I purchased a copy from the author at an ASMIC show about 3 years ago.

[Garandomatic]

Those are the exact mermaids I picked up for my relative. I hope he can get in and put them to use, like I said, a freak baseball injury got him. He had to have a piece of bone spliced in to rebuild what was destroyed, but maybe he'll be good to go when it heals.