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Lots of Navy Flight Jackets this Weekend on Old NAS Brunswick, Maine


VP_Association
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VP_Association

It may interest many of you to know that the Brunswick Naval Aviation Museum is sponsoring a base reunion on old NAS Brunswick, Maine over the weekend of September 17-18-19.  That's this weekend.  Over 700 people have pre-registered to attend, but many more are expected to show up.  What you may find interesting is that the organizers are encouraging veterans to wear flight suits and flight jackets, if they have them.  So, if you are interested in Navy flight gear, especially flight jackets, and live in the Brunswick, Maine area, there will probably be several hundred people wearing vintage Navy flight jackets on old NAS Brunswick this weekend.  Although reunion events are scheduled for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday the main day will be Saturday.  There's a banquet that afternoon and the Navy is sending two P-3s, a P-8, and a couple of T-6 trainers.  Come and visit if you live in the area.  For details see  https://bnamuseum.org/reunion/  I'm going on Saturday, and will be wearing one of my old G-1s, but I'm not sure which one I'm going to wear:

 

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VP_Association

I intend to take lots of photos, and will post them on the "Remember Brunswick Naval Air Station" group on Facebook.

 

Here are two more leather Navy flight jackets that I own.  The first is a Cooper G-1 that I purchased at the NEX at old NAS Brunswick around 1996, soon after I was transferred there from old NAS South Weymouth as a reservist with VP-92.  I borrowed one of the original style VP-92 squadron patches (used between 1970 and 1979) from a squadron old-timer and had twenty copies made for myself and some of my friends.  I was never a fan of putting multiple squadron patches on my flight jackets and I couldn't get a second G-1 issued to me (you were only authorized one leather flight jacket), so I bought one just to put this patch on.  The Cooper jacket was identical to the issue jackets anyway, some of my friends got the exact same one straight from the PRs with the same blue tag and all, and I used to wear it on the aircraft from time to time.  As an aside, I was concerned that somebody might accuse me of misappropriating a second G-1 so I always carried the NEX sales slip in the pocket.  This never happened, but I think the receipt is still there today!  The second jacket is the only one I have that really wasn't mine from back when I was flying with the Navy/Navy Reserve.  Its a WW2 model M442 jacket, the predecessor of the G-1.  This was left to me by a good friend named Francis McIntyre, when he died.  Francis was a Navy flight engineer on patrol seaplanes and land-based transports.  He was an active-duty reserve stationkeeper at NAS Squantum, MA when the reserve training program started up right after WW2.  The jacket remains exactly as Francis used to wear it, with the NAS Squantum base insignia patch and his name tag.

 

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