Opinions On A Direct Embroidered Flight Suit

[Vpep]

Hello everyone,

A friend of mine is offering this flight suit, and Id love to get some opinions on it. I don't know a lot about these pieces so any information would be great. I posted this to WAFs Vietnam section as well to get as much info as possible. The Americal patch looks good to me, but I could be mistaken, since I am no expert by a long shot. I look forward to hearing all your replies.

Thanks in advance,

Vic

[Vpep]

Here is the back.

[mohawkALSE]

Isnt any Army flight suit Ive seen from the time period. By those years the Army was using the 2 piece nomex flight suits. Looks more like something of a mechanics coveralls type thing.

[Vpep]

Thanks for the reply. The material looks a little weird to me. Almost like a rip stop. Could it be a party suit?

[phantomfixer]

I was going to ask if it was a theater/ local tailor made set of coveralls

[gwb123]

The combination of badges look a little bit too good to be true.

 

The pilot wings look to be US Army Senior Pilot wings, which represents 7 years service and 1,000 flight hours.

 

A CIB, ARVN Jump Wings, and US jump wings would have been unlikely unless the pilot had been prior enlisted. It's possible, but questionable.

 

There are a number of souped up flight suits coming out of Thailand and Asia made as much for fashion or wanna be reenactors.

Some of them have the large scale embroidery you see on the back of this garment. I suspect that is what you have here.

[Vpep]

Thanks for the opinions, I suspect that may be the case as well. I will take a look at it, but I definitely dont think im going to commit to this one.

[Ed Rooney]

Thanks for the opinions, I suspect that may be the case as well. I will take a look at it, but I definitely dont think im going to commit to this one.

Plenty of infantry officers and enlisted have gone to flight school after a combat tour. It would be a stretch to do a combat tour as an infantryman, especially in the Americal division, then flight school + 7 years and still make it back to Vietnam a senior aviator.

 

As far as the coveralls, that is not a flight suit in any way. My most plausible explanation is that this was an O-Club drinking suit made up after the war. The badges and patches are all correct, and the back doesn’t say something ridiculous like “43rd Air Base Wing” like the stuff that is out now.

[Ed Rooney]

According to https://www.170th.org/Html/Bikinis.html, about 42 members of the 170th AHC, which was part of the 1st Aviation Brigade, were awarded CIB’s by the 5th SFG. If only we could find a list.

 

Camp Holloway was where they were based in Vietnam. Is that the name on the suit?

[Vpep]

Thanks for the information, that is interesting. I have not seen the coveralls in hand yet. A buddy of mine who is a dealer offered them to me but we have not gotten together yet to look at them.

[Andrei]

What's the name of the pilot?