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Vietnam era? Flight suit, Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service-That Others May Live


CHASEUSA11B
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Found a cool flight suit at the swap meet today. Unfortunately its not named but it has a nice Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service-That Others May Live patch and a military airlift command patch. I believe its Vietnam era but there are no size tags or labels. Anyways, I was happy to find it.

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Good find, would be happy to find something like that at a show! Especially since a relative of mine flew with them.

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Good find, would be happy to find something like that at a show! Especially since a relative of mine flew with them.

Thanks!
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Looks like a second pattern CWU-27P nomex flight suit, so post Vietnam.

Ah ok, thank you for the info. I quickly looked it up but theres a lot of different t patters our there.

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Post Vietnam, guessing o/a 1980. Notice the plastic rank insignia? In this era, that becomes just about a MAC-exclusive thing, especially since the patches are sewn directly on the flight suit.

 

Also notice, the OD green stitching and the fact that the ARRS patch isn't fully stitched on the suit? Guarantee this flight suit was prepared at the base parachute shop. Doesn't look like there was ever a squadron or group patch.

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phantomfixer

Direct stitching patches to flight gear was the norm up till the late 60s or so? I have not seen a 27p with direct sewn patches...I have a 72 dated 27p with velcro for patches..wouldn't the patches be attached with velcro in the early 80s..even in MAC?

I am thinking privately sewn on post service?

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Direct stitching patches to flight gear was the norm up till the late 60s or so? I have not seen a 27p with direct sewn patches...I have a 72 dated 27p with velcro for patches..wouldn't the patches be attached with velcro in the early 80s..even in MAC?

I am thinking privately sewn on post service?

Mine weren't.

 

Served as a mission essential aircrew member with 71st ARRS, 1978 - 1980 at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. My flight suit was prepared at the base parachute shop.

 

Still have the flight gear, helmet and flying boots.

 

Velcro-attached patches -- at least for me -- didn't occur until after 1981 when I was assigned to the 366th TFW, Mt. Home AFB, Idaho -- and doing similar duties with the ARRS detachment there.

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phantomfixer

Flyboy...your memory is better than mine ! .. I was up in the old Army Navy here in Dover...they have piles of 27Ps from the late 70s and 80s all with direct stitching....Props..

 

I was MEGP here at Dover on FREDs...got all the gear, but that was early to mid 90s

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I'm not an expert and I certainly can't quote the regs; just my memories of that time. I always deferred to the Stackpole officer's and striper's guides as a quick reference and at one time had a collection showing the changes in uniforms and badges over the decades.

 

Interesting thing about that Air Force era, late 1970s to early 1980s, was the differences between commands.

 

For example, Air Training Command still wore white on blue insignia, to include name tapes under white on blue wings. Some pilot trainees and instructors also still wore MA-1 flight jackets. I was always amused to see other officers/enlisted types in other commands still wearing MA-1 flight jackets regardless if they were security police, pilots, other aircrew, maintenance or even missile launch/maintenance personnel.

 

In addition to plastic rank on flight suits, Military Airlift Command special duty aircrews and aeromed wore blue flight suits and jackets. The rank was encased in plastic, sewn directly on the uniform. SP Law Enforcement (LE's) wore a blue "bomber" jacket with Velcro or snaps on the side to accommodate side arms. As I remember, the rank on those jackets was also encased in plastic. There was a leather name tag mounted with Velcro.

 

Some MAC crews of that era even wore American flags with white borders on their flight suits like NASA -- instead of the standard yellow -- I never understood why; and Tactical Air Command aircrews started wearing subdued rank insignia with or without Velcro.

 

I always thought the transition to Velcro had more to do with the 366th TFW being the "Alpha" unit of what was then the Rapid Deployment Force -- now U.S. Southern Command -- given the operations tempo back then.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Found a cool flight suit at the swap meet today. Unfortunately its not named but it has a nice Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service-That Others May Live patch and a military airlift command patch. I believe its Vietnam era but there are no size tags or labels. Anyways, I was happy to find it.

 

It's probably post-Vietnam or late Vietnam at best. We started getting Nomex flight suits in 1970. After I left SEA, i went to Charleston AFB, SC where we were eventually required to turn in our cotton flight suits in exchange for Nomex.

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