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Grouping of 8th AAC navigator, caterpillar club, winged boot, and Apollo space suit project manager


blademan
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Greetings,

I ran across this grouping at a  show this last weekend.  The grouping belonged to 8th AAC b-17 navigator 1st Lt. Mathew I. Radnofsky. After just under 30 missions as a b-17 navigator in 1944, his ship was shot down by flak over Germany. There were only two crew members that survived, both parachuted into captivity and into POW camps. 

 

When Mathew bailed out, he lost all his survival gear and this effected the remainder of his life and shaped his future in ways he could not have seen. 

 

After recovering from flak injuries to his back, we was put into the general POW population and soon escaped and made his way back to friendly forces. 

 

He became member of the caterpillar and winged boot escape club. 

 

After the war, he received several college degrees a began his career designing better equipment  for the airforce. In the late 1950s he got a job designing garments for the US Space program. He designed the blue outfits the Gemini astronauts wore before their missions. He later became head of Nasa's Crew apparel group. He lead his team to develop the Apollo 11 lunar space and Skylab space suites. 

 

He went by the nick name "The crazy Russian" from his Russian Jewish roots. 

 

His grouping includes his WWII class A uniform, wings, ribbons bars, caterpillar club , and winged escape boot patch. There are also items such as his wallet, copies of the official letters home, books, and other supporting documents. 

 

I think this is a wonderful grouping with WWII and Apallo program significance. 

 

Your comments are welcome. 

 

Thanks for looking. 

 

 

 

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Beautiful group! Its interesting he has a winged boot since he was a POW and didnt successfully  evade.

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35 minutes ago, KASTAUFFER said:

Beautiful group! Its interesting he has a winged boot since he was a POW and didnt successfully  evade.

I read he is obit as he escaped from the POW and back to the front lines and then back to England.   Think that would explain the winged boot. The telegrams to the fsmiky included in the group also support he escaped.  

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KASTAUFFER,

Great info and help.Thank you!

 

Thanks for every ones comments. 

 

For clarification, I did buy this grouping.

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  • 2 weeks later...
eaglerunner88

What a phenomenal grouping, congrats! That uniform would look fantastic on a mannequin torso.

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