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Pan American Airways - Africa 1942 Insignia


Kimo
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The recent and old discussions on ivory wings reminded me of a grouping I have from a Pan American Airways - Africa man who was based in Accra, the capital city of the British colony known as the Gold Coast, in 1942. At that time PAA was the contractor to the US Army Air Force to carry mail, men, and materiel by air. One of Pan Am's divisions then was Pan Am - Africa which was operated along the coast of West Africa between Liberia and the Gold Coast (which became Ghana after their 1957 independence). By the end of 1942 the generals in the Army Air Force decided that the relative independence of the men of PAA-Africa was not what they wanted as they did not salute or call them sir, they were paid higher salaries and the USAAF brass wanted to have direct command and control. So the USAAF brass arranged to take over PAA-Africa entirely and make them a part of the USAAF. The brass decided to pick those PAA-Africa men who knew how to run the operation and fly the PAA aircraft and force them to "volunteer" for immediate induction into the USAAF. The men they did not think they needed were put on the next plane back to the states with orders to have them all drafted as privates into the infantry when they landed back in the US. The way the brass "sweet-talked" the few handfuls of PAA-Africa men they wanted to keep into staying was they gave them a choice either to accept an immediate officer's commission in the USAAF, or that they would be put on the next plane back to the US with orders that they be immediately drafted as privates into the infantry when they landed. Here is a photo of a grouping of insignia that was worn by one of the PAA-Africa men who accepted the offer he could not refuse in October, 1942. He was inducted on the spot and was commissioned as a First Lieutenant. Two weeks later he was sent to the British colony of Nigeria as a Squadron Commander where he was based for the next two years. These insignia are much of what he had worn on his PAA-Africa uniform just prior to his being inducted on the spot. Note that the PAA-Africa wing is made from ivory. This was not the official badge he and the other PAA-Africa men were issued by Pan Am, but since he and his colleagues in PAA-Africa were a young, jaunty and somewhat irreverent lot, many of them had these made by a local jeweler in Accra to wear on their uniforms. While it was not official issued by Pan Am, it is definitely not a sweetheart item - it was actually worn on his uniform before he was shanghaied by the USAAF. I know all of this because this man was my relative and he told me all of this on a number of occasions. Also the basic facts of his being inducted in the Gold Coast and his service as a Squadron Commander in Nigeria are in his service records.

 

As for the other ivory and bone badges that have been shown on other postings, I would guess that many are more likely sweetheart items, but that some of them, especially the better carved ones, were unofficially worn on men's uniforms.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

A cool thing about Pan Am Africa is that they were analogous to the Flying Tigers in that both groups were technically "contractors" which got them around the neutrality laws before the US entered the war. PAA-Africa was created when Churchill pressed Roosevelt very hard telling him that England was going to lose unless Roosevelt found a way around the US Congress and the neutrality laws and support England. Roosevelt secretyly went to Juan Terry Trippe, the President of Pan Am, and they cooked up a scheme to create two new divisions of Pan Am that would provide war materiel including aircraft to the British by air shipping it on Pan Am's commercial aircraft from Miami to West Africa on "Pan Am Ferries" and then across Africa and up to the Sudan and Egypt on "Pan Am Africa" Like the Flying Tigers, Pan Am Africa was ended when it was absorbed by force into the US Army Air Force in 1942 since the US was then formally a combatant in the war.

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