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US Navy Pilot - Naval Aviator Displays


Darkvalley
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Hi Guys.

 

Not too much Navy stuff for a long long time :( but here is my nice and ICON item for any of Naval Aviation collection.

 

US NAVY score decal with instruction sheet. I was looking for one for a long long time.

 

The set of decals included 5 flags, two insturction sheet and paper envelope.

 

Cheers,

Jerry

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attachicon.gif002.JPG

 

Two-piece leather Naval Flight Suit belonging to Ensign Ray L. Potter, Patrol Bombing Squadron 131, flying the Ventura B4 bomber during actions in the Aleutian Islands. Also shown is a pair of wool lined leather trigger finger mittens, and Wilson goggles with blue lenses..

 

Can you put better pictures of the leather jacket and the label of the jacket?

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  • 1 month later...
airborneaviator

Made a trip to NAS Pensacola recently to see the amazing naval aviation musuem there. There was tons of cool stuff but this mk1 really caught my eye, I've never seen a blue dyed mk1 vest before. It belonged to VT-8 devastator pilot George Gay of Midway fame.post-117195-0-43965300-1446658422.jpg

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Wow that is true one of a kind item named to Midway hero! Thanks for pic! Note a early signal mirror attached.

 

I had a navy blue painted vest but B4 model.

 

Cheers,

Jerry

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airborneaviator,

Thank you for sharing your photo of an important piece of history.

For those who might not know the story...........George Gay was the sole survivor of VT-8 at Midway. After being shot down in the midst of the enemy fleet, he floated there watching the battle until being rescued by US forces the following day. He had his seat cushion ( no raft), which he held vertically in front of his face so as to look like a floating wooden crate and prevent being seen by the Japanese. After rehabilitation in a hospital, when he went back to flying, he camouflaged his Mae West in case he found himself in a similar situation in the future. The photos below are of him on Guadalcanal in 1943, wearing this very life vest. One could speculate that he was the first flier to camouflage-paint his vest. Probably hard to prove, but makes for a good story none the less.

Regards, Paul

 

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@Tom can You post a pics here?

 

@Paul nice photos of George Gay. I know this story and I supposed that he painted his vest after his experience during the Midway Battle.

 

Cheers,

Jerry

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@Tom I like the M450!

 

Second one is not fade green?

 

Cheers,

Jerry

 

Nope it's not. Look at the eyelets, they are white, the green deck helmets have green eyelets. Also when you look closely you can tell it was dyed.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

I just bought a fully rigger created Navy pilot holster. I had been looking for one for a while and this one is great.

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displayed with 1911 pistol

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Charlie Flick

Hello Bazelot:

 

That is an excellent example of a scarce rigger-made holster for the M1911A1 pistol. Very few seem to have survived to this day. I congratulate you on a nice find.

 

Regards,

Charlie

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Charlie Flick

I don't think so, it goes around my chest. What I am not sure is what the hook and the straps at the tip of the holster were used for

 

Bazelot:

 

One cannot be certain given that this holster is essentially a one-off piece. However, I think it would be reasonable to conclude that the short strap with the hook was intended to serve as a lanyard which hooked onto the M1911 pistol's lanyard loop at the butt. While not useful once the pistol is removed from the holster (as a standard pistol lanyard is intended to be) this one probably acted as a backup to the safety strap to insure that the pistol was not lost by falling out of the holster if the aviator found it necessary to bail out.

 

The two straps at the bottom tip of the holster were almost certainly intended to secure the holster to the belt of the flight suit. Again, this acted to keep the holstered pistol from flopping around when the aviator bailsedout at 300 MPH. The M3 and related M3 style holsters have a leather loop which performs this same function.

 

Regards,

Charlie Flick

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  • 4 weeks later...

Back on the subject of painted Mae tests- saw this footage the other day and had to capture a couple of stills... look at the dye marker packs and the yellow under the collar!!!!!!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...
heliographer

Made a trip to NAS Pensacola recently to see the amazing naval aviation musuem there. There was tons of cool stuff but this mk1 really caught my eye, I've never seen a blue dyed mk1 vest before. It belonged to VT-8 devastator pilot George Gay of Midway fame.attachicon.gifimage.jpg

 

A similar photo of the display of George Gay's life vest taken by a museum visitor is posted on Flickr, is here: https://flic.kr/p/nNk7h6

(for those wanting a closer look, a 2112x2816 pixel version is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9681508@N03/14307779189/sizes/o/ )

 

As your first respondent commented, you can see the first-generation Buaer round metal signal mirror in chamois case below and to the right of the vest.

At the moment, the George Gay exhibit is the only location I know of with one on display.

 

There's a lot of background on the first generation mirror (and successors) in the thread on this forum on WWII emergency signal mirrors:

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/2412-wwii-emergency-signal-mirror/

 

At the Battle of Midway, in 1942, that would be the standard US naval aviator mirror - In February 1943, the pilots were told to drill a hole in the center,

but the chamois case covers the mirror to an extent that we can't see if that was done here. There was an excellent photo of one with the central hole

online at http://collections.naval.aviation.museum, but it is gone, now.

 

The US navy BUAER replaced that mirror by the "cross-in-glass" ESM/1 starting in Sept. 1943, and that replaced by the M580A Learned reflex-type mirror in mid-1944.

 

George Gay tells his story in this interview: http://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/oral-histories/wwii/battle-of-midway/recollections-of-lieutenant-george-gay.html

 

 

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  • 8 months later...

Hi Guys.

 

Inspired a Dustin new Navy mannequins (http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/178425-ere-room/page-7&do=findComment&comment=2229033)

I decided to made more space in my old room for my last USMC aviation guy.

 

Late war spring 1945 USMC F6F pilot (USMC becouse nylon flight suit is named to USMC pilot).

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Closer pic.

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Late war PK-1 raft kit. Kit have a life raft included a rare white lanyard for connection with life vest.

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MKI knife in rigger made pocket.

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Late war pilot survival equipment included: blood chits, survival maps, fishing kit, survival kit, signal mirror, compasses, light, survival manual etc.

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Closer pics.

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Rest of the stuff:

 

MKIII ploatting board, US NAVY issued A-14 oxygen mask, signal day and night flares (MKI MOD 0, M75), survival knifes and rigger made ammo holders and signal pouch.

 

Enjoy,

 

Jerry

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Hi Guys.

 

Inspired a Dustin new Navy mannequins (http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/178425-ere-room/page-7&do=findComment&comment=2229033)

I decided to made more space in my old room for my last USMC aviation guy.

 

Late war spring 1945 USMC F6F pilot (USMC becouse nylon flight suit is named to USMC pilot).

Amazing detail as always Jerry! Love the rare rigger made items!

Cheers, Graham

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