WWII Flight Nurse, WASP jacket, flight jacket and more!

[militaryoutfitter]

Another piece I like to say I will die with...not because it won't sell but because I CAN'T sell it...These are the highlights of a full footlocker group to Anna M Scheldorf Underwood, a 12th Air Force flight nurse, recipient of the Air Medal and wife of a Lt. Underwood, Eisenhower's pilot/co-pilot during the latter part of WWII. The neatest part of this set is her A2 flight jacket with a 12th AF medical unit squadron patch, and her WASP jacket used as a flight nurse jacket, with a medical officer shirt size wing worn as a flight nurse wing, with her name engraved on back, perhaps used before the FN wing came out? She wore the pants to this jacket after the war and they are gone, sadly.

 

She was a little older in WWII, nearly 30, and ended up marrying Lt. Underwood, his service noted above, in Italy I believe. All her uniforms are in the named trunk along with her papers, medals, and etc. A dealer buddy of mine got this from her when she was his neighbor, and I do recall seeing her out doing gardening when I would visit him. I never met her but its a personal connection of a kind at least. I was told she died recently, nearly 100 years old!

 

Its an unusual set and I thought some of you AAF and WAC and ANC guys might get a kick out of it! I hope you enjoy!

[militaryoutfitter]

A photo of Anna in France I believe

[militaryoutfitter]

Closeup of the patches on the flight jacket and WASP jacket.

[militaryoutfitter]

Her make-shift flight nurse wing named on back

[militaryoutfitter]

The flight jacket squadron patch has the general shape of the 12th AF patch, I have not seen another of these.

[Sabrejet]

Uber cool...and uber rare!

[carbinephalen]

Simply amazing that these groups surface still!

 

Why won't some of that luck find me!?

 

Haha, you have every right to hold on to this museum worthy group, it's a once in a lifetime find!

[JDK]

Wow! Excellent and rare stuff right there!! Thanks for sharing!

 

JD

[cutiger83]

Very nice uniforms. However, I do not believe that is a WASP jacket. That is an Army nurse blue flight jacket. You can see the uniform on the Blitzkrieg website:

 

http://www.blitzkriegbaby.de/homepage.htm

 

 

...Kat

[Terry K.]

Me thinks you are correct Kat. Nice set!

[cutiger83]

Wanted to bump this thread to make sure the original poster saw the message that this is not a WASP jacket but rather a flight nurse jacket.

 

...Kat

[militaryoutfitter]

I saw it, just had nothing to add. Have never seen a Wilson Flight Nurse jacket before in blue/gray. Thanks though! Consider me bumped and updated as to your thoughts. Thanks!

[cutiger83]

Have never seen a Wilson Flight Nurse jacket before in blue/gray.

 

 

The flight nurses had this blue uniform and an olive drab uniform. In January 1945, a light weight khaki uniform was established. This is from the Blitzkrieg website:

 

In June 1943, a blue woolen flight nurse's uniform was standardized. It consisted of a blue-gray battledress jacket Type F-1 which could be worn with matching Type A-1 aviation slacks or Type A-1 nurse's aviation skirt. A Type C-1 garrison cap with maroon piping completed the outfit. The uniform could be worn with a powder blue shirt or with a white shirt, black tie, black shoes and black gloves.

 

Also, in the book "Dressed for Duty" volume 1, it shows the Wilson label for the blue jackets on page 241.

[militaryoutfitter]

No matching blue pants or ?? Are A1 the OD ones? Interesting. I have done this for almost 30 years, mainly from estates and so on, and not collections, and have never seen one of these, even in flight nurse lots. I did not get any pants with this lot, so am not sure what they look like, or if they wore whatever they had, with no interest in matching colors.

[doyler]

matching trousers were available and in the same material as the jacket as I recall. Seeing the trousers or slacks we're probably popular to be worn after the war as they were pretty generic looking and assume most were worn out long ago.I have spoken to a few female veterans over the years and most did wear or convert much of their clothing to civilian use as they had very little after the war. One local lady who just passed away last week I recall had nothing left but her purse as far as her uniform went. She did give me a few pieces of her collar insignia but all of her clothing had been worn while working at various civilian jobs right after the war.

[doyler]

No matching blue pants or ?? Are A1 the OD ones? Interesting. I have done this for almost 30 years, mainly from estates and so on, and not collections, and have never seen one of these, even in flight nurse lots. I did not get any pants with this lot, so am not sure what they look like, or if they wore whatever they had, with no interest in matching colors.

[doyler]

The trousers are shown on the website provided.they had two front slash pockets we're also pleated in the front and two rear hip pockets with flaps.

[cutiger83]

Doyler,

 

Thanks for your input. You are correct about the trousers. Just to add a little more to the reference, this is again from "Dressed for Duty Volume 1": I highly recommend getting Dressed for Duty as a reference for women's uniforms:

 

The matching trousers had four cloth belt loops and fastened on the side by Talon zipper and blue plastic button. There were two slash pockets on each front side and two smaller pockets with flaps and concealed blue plastic, two hole buttons in the back. Some jackets had three button holes made into a strip of cloth that was sewn into the back of the jacket, along the waistband. Some trousers had three blue plastic buttons sewn on the waistband, to correspond with any buttons sewn to the battledress jacket. This was so the nurse could button the jacket to the trousers to keep the jacket from riding up.

 

...Kat

[doyler]

Doyler,

 

Thanks for your input. You are correct about the trousers. Just to add a little more to the reference, this is again from "Dressed for Duty Volume 1": I highly recommend getting Dressed for Duty as a reference for women's uniforms:

 

The matching trousers had four cloth belt loops and fastened on the side by Talon zipper and blue plastic button. There were two slash pockets on each front side and two smaller pockets with flaps and concealed blue plastic, two hole buttons in the back. Some jackets had three button holes made into a strip of cloth that was sewn into the back of the jacket, along the waistband. Some trousers had three blue plastic buttons sewn on the waistband, to correspond with any buttons sewn to the battledress jacket. This was so the nurse could button the jacket to the trousers to keep the jacket from riding up.

 

...Kat

Good info Kat.

[trinitykitty24]

I have seen many blue flight nurse uniforms. I have one, matching pants and all. I would post pics but it wont let me?

[trinitykitty24]

figured it out, sorry for the terrible pics.

[cutiger83]

figured it out, sorry for the terrible pics.

 

Very nice flight nurse uniform. Thanks so much for posting pictures.....Kat

[trinitykitty24]

thanks kat, I will get better pics when I can actually get someone to take pics of me wearing it and get all the insignia on it, just waiting for my wings to come.

[Timberwolf]

Great flight nurse uniform! I'm actually currently in nursing school, but of course they didn't have male nurses in the nursing corps during WWII.

[Ricardo]

VERY nice!!

 

Ricardo.