Found My Father's Pinks and Greens

[Atticus]

Way in the back of an upstairs closet, in a couple of plastic bags tied at both ends, was my father's USAAF uniform and his three-quarter length officer's overcoat. I also found what must have been his A-1. OK. Just kidding about the A-1. That's my Goodwear. But it looks pretty cool with Dad's stuff, doesn't it. Anyhow, I polished up the brass and ran a lint roller over the jacket...but otherwise this is exactly how I found his Pinks and Greens earlier last week. By the way, I guess when the war ended, he was in the 1st Air Force waiting for assignment to the PTO.

Mom has maintained for years that Dad threw all his WWII stuff away in a cleaning fit two decades ago. Damn, I'm glad she was wrong!

AF

 

[Peter Graham]

Wow Geoff, that's fantastic. You must be so chuffed. The stuff is in such great condition too. You will treasure those for the rest of your days. Do they fit you ?

 

[Atticus]

Do they fit you ?

Not since I was about 14 years old!

AF

 

[Andrew]

Brilliant Geoff. What a find after all those years. Must've been a great feeling to discover those.

Going through your parents stuff can be a terribly unrewarding but moreover sad task. Lately ive been doing something a little similar for my Father in Law (he's luckily still with us but had to move out and go to into hospital). Unfortunately nothing like that has popped up yet, and I doubt will as he was Polish forced labour under the Nazis and came out with nothing but his ID card.

 

[stubbyeighth]

What a great story and a great find. Is that the Old Man himself wearing an A-2 in your avatar?

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stubbyeighth

 

[ausreenactor]

That is awesome! That is the style of 'vintage jacket' I adore.
Around half a dozen here, but I can not boast of a hereditary
connection. Great stuff, and thanks for sharing the pics!!

Couchy

 

[deand]

What a blessing to have! Thanks for showing them.









dean

 

[Atticus]

What a great story and a great find. Is that the Old Man himself wearing an A-2 in your avatar?

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stubbyeighth

Indeed it is. It must have been taken sometime during flight school...probably during advanced training in Alabama. His helmet has gosport tube connectors, so I'm pretty sure he was still in flight school.

Dad was never sent overseas during WWII. He was a seventeen year old freshman at NC State University, and was in the ROTC, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Within a few months, he had been drafted...and so he left college to go off to war. By 1943 he had gone all the way through advanced infantry training and was an infantry private waiting to be shipped to the ETO. As he told me the story, he was sitting in the barracks one Sunday morning when the corporal stomped in, pinned a sheet of paper the barracks bulletin board and hollered, "Do any of you dumb fucks here think you've got enough sense to fly an airplane?" Dad raised his hand…and doing so may have saved his life. He would have been timed just about right to participate in the Normandy invasion (as did his older brother) or any of the 1944-1945 island invasions in the PTO.

A few months later he was in an OCS class and was then sent on to flight school. By the time he had finished both, the war in Europe was drawing to an end. He was stationed in California, a new Butterbar fighter pilot ready to go to the PTO, when the first atom bomb was unleashed. After the war, he stayed in the reserves for several years until Mom made him get out during the Korean Conflict. I was born in 1955, effectively putting an end to Dad’s involvement with the military.

AF

 

[Otter]

Realy nice to find those, I always thought that the Pinks and Greens made for a smart looking uniform.