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Walter Pforzheimer's uniforms


USMCRECON
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About three years ago I was at an event in northern Virginia called "The Big Flea" where vendors bring furniture, pictures, ephemera, sports cards, clothes, and lots of pure junk for a two-day event.

 

I happened to be walking by one of the booths with lots of clothes hung up on large racks and as I passed by, I saw what looked like a patch sticking out between two dresses. I backed up and went to late a closer look and found an Army air Forces officer’s khaki uniform on the rack with a patch that I recognize as something related to Air forces Headquarters in Europe in WW-II (I've seen a picture with GEN Spaatz wearing the same patch). I asked the seller about it and he said it belonged to Walter Pforzheimer, who (at that time) had recently passed away. He said Mr Pforzheimer had been living at the Watergate when he passed away and this seller bought a bunch of books and other stuff from the estate and the uniform was among the stuff he got.

 

I expressed interest in it and he said he hat two other uniforms that also belonged to Mr Pforzheimer and showed me a USAF blue uniform with the same patch on the sleeve (Odd, a patch on AF blues but???) The other was a really nice AAF Pinks and greens with an older version of the same patch and bullion insignia. Her wanted $75.00 for the lot and I accepted. He also threw in a flight logbook from a German WW-II pilot and a bunch of articles and other info on Mr Pforzheimer.

 

The story of Walter Pforzheimer, while not a "war hero," is extremely interesting. It's a long story and I won't bore you with all the details. You can Google him and find tons of stuff on him. Anyway, below are pictures of his pinks and greens and the khakis. The little white spots on the chocolate tunic are specks of lint, there is no damage whatsoever (beside tarnish of the bullion) on the uniform. The khakis look to be made of linen. They are very thin and, as the pictures indicate, prone to wrinkles. There are also a couple small spots, which would probably come out with a dry cleaning. Finally, the khakis have LT bars on them but I think these stuck on later. There are marks on the epaulettes where Captains bars should have been,

 

I was not able to attach all the pics to one post so will open another entry with the USAF blues.

 

 

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CNY Militaria

Great uniforms with awesome insignia! Early USAF uniforms had patches on them, so no worries. I googled him and he is certainly a distinguished gentleman!

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More great pieces from your wonderful collection, Bill! :D

 

Thank you, again, for your kind words. It's a thrill for me to finally be able to share them with someone. They have been in my basement family room, either on mannequins or in the "uniform closet" for years. I have to fight the urge to dump pictures of my stuff on too frequently. :unsure:

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