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AAC uniform questions


medalcollector
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medalcollector

Dear fellow collectors,

 

I recently acquired two beautiful WWII AAC uniforms thanks to members of this forum. Trying to restore the uniforms, I have two questions:

1. One of the officers is listed in official AAC documentation as Bombardier/Navigator. In his last mission, during which he was killed, he was listed as the Navigator. Which wings should I use; navigator, bombardier or both? Has anyone ever seen a legitimate uniform with multiple wings?

2. The second uniform is an enlisted flight engineer of 5th AAF. When is the engineer sleeve insignia supposed to be worn versus wearing the flight engineer wings on the left breast? Can both be worn at the same time? What about air crew wings?

 

Thanks to all in advance.

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I havent seen a lot of flight engineers wear the engineer wing.In my experience most wore gunners wing as the FE was the top turret gunner.Some may have wore the crew wing.The cuff patch would be worn as I recall in conjunction with wings.A friends father was FE in the pacific on B25.In his stuff are both gunner and crew wings.I recall seeing a post war Air National guard portrait of him in uniform wearing the crew wings on his uniform.

 

I have a 8th AF officers uniform with two wings.He was a POW.He wore a set of gunner wings over right pocket and the other over left.Not standard or regulation but he told me this was how he put the uniform away after the war.

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As collectors, I think sometimes we tend to add the "cool factor" when looking at or restoring uniforms. The winged bullet on the aviator's wing is seen as a much neater wing than the "boring" air crew wing. We speaking with various WWII veterans back in the day, there were several times when these vets would refer to the aircrew wings as a higher grade of wing than the gunner wing. It was explained to me more than once that gunners wore the gunner wings. Crewmen who had multiple duties in the air would wear the air crew wings. It is quite common to find crewmen of higher NCO rank to be wearing air crew wings rather than gunner wings- technical sergeants and master sergeants especially.

 

As for the Flight Engineer wing, they are really a rather late war addition to AAF insignia. The vast majority of WWI Flight Engineers never saw a Flight Engineer wing with most wearing the aircrew wing instead.

 

My two cents,

Allan

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  • 1 month later...
medalcollector

Gentlemen,

 

Thank you very much for your comments. I hope to post the two unifoms once I've completed the restoration.

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