Atticus
Well-Known Member
Some of you may recall that my father passed away in July....and that my mother is in a nursing home. So Jackie and I have been slowly cleaning and refurbishing their house in Beaufort for use as our summer home, and maybe for a place to retire.
When I was a child, a photo of Dad wearing an A-2 hung in our den. I remember seeing it and wishing with every fiber in me that Dad had kept his jacket. In fact, I remember times that I was almost angry at him for returning it to the USAAF. Dang it, didn't he know that I would be born ten years after the war, and would love flight jackets, and would want his A-2? No question in my mind...that photograph is the first reason that I love flight jackets.
Over the last twenty years, I've looked high and low for that photo. Every time I visited Mom and Dad in Beaufort I would ask about it. Mom didn't remember it at all, and Dad thought that it had been thrown away. Dad always thought anything he couldn't find at the moment had been thrown away. At best, they thought it might be in an upstairs closet that was filled to the brim with sixty years of junk.
Saturday, Jackie found it. It was buried behind a mountain of books in a downstairs book case. With it, there was a letter that Dad had written to my grandparents, inviting them to his graduation from OCS. It is clearly a studio photograph. I'm guessing it was taken in late 1944 or early 1945...maybe very soon after he got his wings. There's not much detail to go on, but can anyone hazzard a guess as to the make of the A-2?
AF
When I was a child, a photo of Dad wearing an A-2 hung in our den. I remember seeing it and wishing with every fiber in me that Dad had kept his jacket. In fact, I remember times that I was almost angry at him for returning it to the USAAF. Dang it, didn't he know that I would be born ten years after the war, and would love flight jackets, and would want his A-2? No question in my mind...that photograph is the first reason that I love flight jackets.
Over the last twenty years, I've looked high and low for that photo. Every time I visited Mom and Dad in Beaufort I would ask about it. Mom didn't remember it at all, and Dad thought that it had been thrown away. Dad always thought anything he couldn't find at the moment had been thrown away. At best, they thought it might be in an upstairs closet that was filled to the brim with sixty years of junk.
Saturday, Jackie found it. It was buried behind a mountain of books in a downstairs book case. With it, there was a letter that Dad had written to my grandparents, inviting them to his graduation from OCS. It is clearly a studio photograph. I'm guessing it was taken in late 1944 or early 1945...maybe very soon after he got his wings. There's not much detail to go on, but can anyone hazzard a guess as to the make of the A-2?
AF