War Correspondents wearing A2s

[MauldinFan]

Two from the George Stevens series of color film he shot with his own equipment from Normandy to the VE Day.
I don't know who these men were. Some of you might know I have more than a passing interest in this subject and have a collection of their insignia, uniforms and personal items. I'd not seen a photo of a civilian correspondent wearing an A2 marked with insignia before seeing these.

The film can be seen here:

 

[mulceber]

Total cop-out of an explanation: private purchase?

 

[Chandler]

Total cop-out of an explanation: private purchase?

Traded, or bartered from supply, for a good bottle of Scotch.

 

[MauldinFan]

Could be as simple as they promised to send home a photo of the guy they got the A2 from or said they'd include them into a story.
Correspondents usually had plenty of people in the service willing to help then out.

 

[Micawber]

I'm very familiar with that footage. Priceless stuff.

 

[taiAtari]

First picture seems to show a bi-swing back, so not an A2. Private purchase civilian jacket as suggested by Mulceber seems likely.

 

[ZuZu]

I've watched this footage before. Some of the jackets are definitely A-2s. Interesting that the correspondents seem to wear their A-2s pretty large- not quite as skimpy as some airmen.

I'm sure the grabass that went on between everyone behind the lines made it pretty easy to get a hold of whatever little thing you wanted. Of course maybe I'm just in the thick of Gravity's Rainbow Pynchonian thinking...

 

[Yardstick]

Not war correspondents but close - I've got images of what I believe to be original chest patches for the 1st through to the 9th Combat Camera Units as well as the 1st Motion Picture Unit. I only have the one picture of one of these patches on an A-2 (1st Combat Camera Units, 15th AAF), but I would expect they found there way onto whatever jacket the individual was either issued or 'precured' during his time in theatre.