Recent content by B. Willbnks

I have returned from being absent for three years. If you go back to Nov. 2018 and read about me buying a G1 flight jacket from Five Star and the problems I had with a horrible odor that came with the jacket that Five Star shipped. So here is an update on what has happen these past three...

I would to add one final message here. Being 89 years old, and come Dec. 15th for my 90th birthday, my memory is rather excellent. It might be due to my ancestry blood line. My grandmother died at the age of 106, my grandfather died at age 101. My father died on his 98 birthday. My...

To all: I found this VLJ website by accident. I was always told try to avoid accidents. This is one of them. My main reason to join was to seek information on what two old 1950's 55J14 flight jacket might be worth having or selling. That I have such doesn't make me a crazy fool in collecting...

Follow-up. That "good-luck" coin was given to me by the Air Dept. CO in 1950, and has been attached to two) original 55J14 jackets from 1950-1955, and to two (2) G-1 7823 series 1955-1966. It was attached to this Five Star jacket upon receiving it. Now, it seems that was some "bad...

Last Saturday I made a trip to Kansas City, Mo and taken the G-1 Spec.55J14 to Arrow Leather Care, who is one of the best well-known professional leather cleaning specialist in the world. The jacket that Five Star made for me reeks so badly with a toxic odor, that it cannot be worn. The...

That's a laugh. Don't take any old brain cells to remember the jacket makers, size. etc.. when they hanging in a closet some twenty feet away. Oh! I almost forgot.. I have a three log books" from those Navy days, and just about everything that happen... Including have sex with a couple...

What are the ingredients/chemicals involved in getting the goatskin hide during the process for a jacket? My reason is... I have a G-1 that has a real bad odor, and there seems to be nothing to remove it. My last thought was the shipping carrier may have spilled hydraulic fluid on the...

If I would send the jacket to a Chemist to get an analyst on where it has hydraulic fluid, and it came back as such, there would be no other source other than DHL. As for as I can determine, DHL was the only carrier to handle the package. However, it did get a short time at the Customs...

I, awoke in middle of the night, when one of my old silent brain cells came back to life. As some here may know I spent some time in the US Navy and the early part was in the Korean war. About 10 days ago I received my Five Star G-1 spec. 55J14 leather jacket, It had a horrible odor when I...

QUOTE: B-Mn2 wrote this is above posting... don’t destroy it, or throw it away. There are several of us here who will gladly step up and take a crack at removing the odor from the jacket and making it one of our everyday wearers. I for one will step up and give it a try and Im sure others here...

We never used any "slang terms" as Bear. I think that may have come from the Air Force in reference to a Russian aircraft. We had two words regarding aircraft. "Friendly and Hostile" and that how we radio on any aircraft is the combat zone.

There wasn't no such term used in reference to the enemy. When a I'm not sure the jacket (package) will get by the USPS inspectors or UPS package police due to it odor that I'm positive will radiate from within. They might think I'm shipping some bad chemicals, etc. I hear that Homeland...

No!, I was not a AD-4W pilot. I was a radioman/radar tech. Yes!, they were called the Able Dogs. aka "the guppy"

I wanted to advise the VLJ members here that Shawn of Five Star has sent me a email to re-make me another G-1 Spec. 55J14 size 46. I would think any other jacket maker wouldn't have done so. That is very nice of Shawn to solve the jacket I received with the odor. Shows he is serious about...

I would also like to comment. How many members here was issued a new US Navy, Army, or Marine leather flight jacket while in the service. When you open the carton that day the Navy ask you to sign for it and was instructed that it was to be worn only off duty and not off base on liberty, or...