What on earth is this supposed to be?

[Scarecrow]

On 10/4/2022 at 1:17 PM, 5thwingmarty said:

Do you know what class she graduated in?  It would be interesting to know if she was originally issued a Josten wing or one of the earlier wings.  My guess is at some point she lost her original wing and it was replaced with this one, and it was so long ago she forgot that had happened.  

She graduated in class 44-5.

[5thwingmarty]

So she would have been issued a Josten wing originally.  If you bought the grouping from the WASP I hope you didn't pay more for it than the value of the uniform and any other potentially original insignia on it.  Even if she says this was her wing, it is obviously a replacement that could have been made at any time in the last 70 years so another collector would not give it much value.

[manayunkman]

On 10/4/2022 at 11:52 AM, Scarecrow said:

I'll preface with the fact that I am not a wing person, ID'd uniform groupings are my search area.  So I leave the wing discussions to my more knowledgeable and experienced Forum colleagues.  However thought I'd enter this into the discussion.  First let me say that the wing shown does not have a gold tone, it was the lighting in one of my rooms. And second sorry for the fuzziness of the photo of the back of the wing, I was leaning over another mannequin when taking it.  This wing is on the Santiago Blue uniform of a WASP.  It was acquired directly from the WASP and in fact she is still with us and just recently celebrated her 100th birthday.  The wing on the jacket is a US Gunner's wing with the WASP lozenge soldered on.  She says this is the wing she wore and is original to the jacket.  Thought it might be of interest to some here.

(Sorry 3rd photo is sideways but I can't seem to correct it.)

How is the wing fixed to the jacket and what is it’s length?

 

It looks like it was struck more than once as a pilot, a gunner and then WASP.

 

Im very intrigued by it and hope it’s origins can be identified.

[pfrost]

Class 44-5 started in December 1943 and graduated in June of 1944 with about 70/125 or so women graduating.  The WASPs were disbanded about 6 months later in December 1944.