Aloft on D-Day?!

[Sabrejet]

This is just a regular WW2 AAF issue B-4 Mae West. But, what makes it "special" (to me, at least) is its inspection stamp which reads "6/5/44". I'm assuming that this is to be read American-style...month-day-year (I'm a Brit..we reverse the month-day) Therefore, if I'm right, then this life-vest was inspected on the eve of D-Day. I like to think that perhaps it was worn in the skies above the beaches on that historic day..or if not actually on that day then certainly at some point during the Normandy campaign. We'll never know for sure, of course.......

 

 

[517th]

If its missing the top strap it may even have been worn by a paratrooper........517th

[Sabrejet]

If its missing the top strap it may even have been worn by a paratrooper........517th

 

 

That never occured to me 517th. I'll have to check it out! Thanks for the tip. :thumbsup:

[Sabrejet]

That never occurred to me 517th. I'll have to check it out! Thanks for the tip. :thumbsup:

[jgawne]

yeah, inspected at the factory . Did you really think someone's going to inspect in the field something liek that ont he day they were supposed to have landed?

[hawkdriver]

Even freakier, it was inspected 21 years to the day before I was born!!! Now that is weird

[Sabrejet]

yeah, inspected at the factory . Did you really think someone's going to inspect in the field something liek that ont he day they were supposed to have landed?

 

 

I hear what you say....but was there no provision for unit level inspections too? Flying kit was not the possession individual airmen...rather it was pooled and re-issued as and when. Key items like parachutes and oxygen masks etc were routinely checked/ serviced by maintenance personnel before being re-issued as lives depended upon them. Why not life preservers too? A leaky life preserver is no good in the English Channel. Just a thought.......

 

PS. I have all of your books! :thumbsup:

[gwb123]

I am not sure that is a factory inspection mark. The first set of numbers is a Technical Order. These were technical updates that would have been issued service wide to insure that equipment met the latest specifications. An item freshly manufactured should have already been made to the most current specifications and would not need such a marking. I think this one indicates that this was inspected at unit or at least field depot level.

[hawkdriver]

You are correct, When an item is manufactured at the factory, the QC makes sure it is to standard, so there is no reason to stamp it as inspected with a date. The item doesn't begin it's inspection cycle until it is put into service. Then once it is put into service, records are started and then at its inspection date, it is opened and that is when it is stamped. So, based on what I see on this preserver, it hit it's inspection cycle and was completed on 5 Jun 44. These inspections are done at the unit level and it would be safe to assume that this vest was inspected and released for use. It is quite feasible that this vest could have been utilized on the 6th, what is going to be hard to prove without the inspection records, is where it was on that day. Good find

[Sabrejet]

You are correct, When an item is manufactured at the factory, the QC makes sure it is to standard, so there is no reason to stamp it as inspected with a date. The item doesn't begin it's inspection cycle until it is put into service. Then once it is put into service, records are started and then at its inspection date, it is opened and that is when it is stamped. So, based on what I see on this preserver, it hit it's inspection cycle and was completed on 5 Jun 44. These inspections are done at the unit level and it would be safe to assume that this vest was inspected and released for use. It is quite feasible that this vest could have been utilized on the 6th, what is going to be hard to prove without the inspection records, is where it was on that day. Good find

 

 

Thanks guys!! :thumbsup:

 

 

Ian