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The average airman

Greg Gale

Well-Known Member
This was posted by BK on Facebook:

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B-Man2

Well-Known Member
That accounts for the reason that the size A2 you see out there most of the time is usually a size 42. I can’t begin to count the number of A2 jackets that I’ve seen in that size . Some amazing looking originals in that size as well.
 

Silver Surfer

Well-Known Member
interesting in that with the given height, abd pix of wwll air men, the weight seems off. i mean, most of the pix i have seen of those guys make them out to be on the thin side. more like at 5'9" a weight of 135lbs-145lbs, not 154.3
 

B-Man2

Well-Known Member
burt,, most i have seen have been sizes 38 and 40, with size 42s coming in a distant third.
Vic
I’ll definitely defer to your experience on this, I guess I just seem to see 42s lately up on eBay and up for sale on different web sites .
 

Edward

Well-Known Member
Hard to judge by the period photos but most were on the smaller side perhaps being just post depression era and working out at a gym wasn’t a thing. Unless you were a farmer you didn’t have broad back and shoulders either which to me accounts for seeing so many 38 and 40 jackets appearing on auction sites. There were many exceptions but most enlisted were fresh out of high school or college. Small stature types

48F30C8C-9307-4A24-8645-1AA1ABA90245.jpeg
 

Smithy

Well-Known Member
interesting in that with the given height, abd pix of wwll air men, the weight seems off. i mean, most of the pix i have seen of those guys make them out to be on the thin side. more like at 5'9" a weight of 135lbs-145lbs, not 154.3

I think the discrepancy is on account of the fact that this study was done Stateside so before airmen were shipped off to operational theatres where nutrition due to rationing and supply was almost certainly not quite as good as back in the US. Add to that combat stress which is known to affect weight and you probably have an arguable position for why the weight in the study seems higher than what was in combat operational areas - Britain, Europe, the Pacific, etc.
 

ausreenactor

Well-Known Member
Dress uniforms are mostly 38Rs. Would expect that to transfer to the A-2s. 36R and 40R are the left and right of the common arcs.
 

Pilot

Well-Known Member
Hard to judge by the period photos but most were on the smaller side perhaps being just post depression era and working out at a gym wasn’t a thing. Unless you were a farmer you didn’t have broad back and shoulders either which to me accounts for seeing so many 38 and 40 jackets appearing on auction sites. There were many exceptions but most enlisted were fresh out of high school or college. Small stature types

View attachment 25341
Nice fit!
 

Silver Surfer

Well-Known Member
makes sense, smithy, but i still find it a bit odd, even when there are pix of wwll guys in new a-2s, as well as the pix of guys in their worn a-2s, in theater.
 

Silver Surfer

Well-Known Member
how true. there are many examples of 16 and 17 year old guys finding some way to bullshit their way into the aaf, army, navy, and marines during wwll. bad ass teens.
 

B-Man2

Well-Known Member
how true. there are many examples of 16 and 17 year old guys finding some way to bullshit their way into the aaf, army, navy, and marines during wwll. bad ass teens.
Or in many cases the depression had left many families with nothing and the teenage kids found a better life in the military . That was the case with my dad who joined the army in early 1940, at the age of 17 because it was a better life for him.
 

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