WWII 7th Army Air Corps "Ike Jacket" Uniform

Finally got around to getting some photos of this uniform. It's not camouflage (one of only a few in my collection), but it's still one of my favourites. It's a WWII-era 7th Army Air Corps uniform, produced in April of 1945.

Interesting story behind the acquisition of this uniform -- It was my sophomore year of high school and I was the assistant logistics officer in my school's JROTC battalion. We were cleaning out our supply room prior to our formal inspection. I was moving tubs of BDUs and came across a beat-up cardboard box that had been closed up with packing tape. Since we had to consolidate our inventory, I opened to find this, along with two Navy jumpers (a white and a blue), a pair of gaitors, a VN-era khaki poplin shirt with 1SGT insignia removed, and a garrison cap to this uniform (which I never recovered and kind of regret, even to this day.)

Since they were obviously obsolete stock, the instructor told me I could do with the items what I wished, and the rest would be donated for a display at the local Guard Armoury. I managed to salvage the gaitors and VN poplin shirt too, but didn't feel like digging them out. I don't know what became of the Navy jumpers, but I do know they are no longer there. The school has only had a cadet program since 1989, so I have no idea how these uniforms came into their possession or why they had them.




"Ruptured Duck" patch & US insignia


Corps of Aviation insignia, jump wings and an unknown ribbon. I can't seem to find any info on this decoration...several retired and active-duty friends of mine don't recognise it, either. Any help?


Close-up of Air Corps patch and E-5 SGT chevrons. Interesting to note how the unit patch seems to have only "temporary" stitching.


Tag on the inside right pocket.


Neat little memento I found in the left inside pocket.

Cheers!

Nice jacket! A few things to note, the ribbon bar is the American Campaign ribbon for soldiers who served in the "American" theatre in WWII. Examples would be serving on a ship or plain during a period of 1 year within or around the US. The jump wing is not WWII and is not appropriate for the air corps. It would only be awarded to a paratrooper in an airborne unit. The stiching on the 7th air corps is very common and is just a way of hand sewning a patch.

I think the ABN wings were put on by whoever wore it in the cadet corps (I saw a photo of a Veterans Day Parade where this uniform was worn) I thought too that they looked "too new" for this uniform. I'm guessing they wore it for a "living history" type of display during the parade, and it was then put up in storage?

Yup, American Campaign. There's more to it tho. Awarded for service within the American Theatre between 7 Dec., 41 and 2 Mar.,46. Conditions for award were permenant assignment outside the the US, passanger status outside the US for 30 consecutive or 60 non-consecutive days, or one year's aggregate service within the continental US. AO was North, Central, and South America. Basically, take a map of the Americas, draw a line cutting off Alaska then almost following the edge of Western Canada and the US to South America and then straight down. On the East coast, cut off Greenland then go between Africa and South America.

The 7th AAF was originally known as the Hawaiian Air Forcen formed at Fort Shafter on 19 Oct. 1940. It provided defense for Hawaii and Combat Ops in the central Pacific. It earned the Asiatic/Pacific Campaign and WW2 Victory.

It probably was brought in by a vet, faculty, or a former student to use as you said, in a display or living history. It may have wound up there from the theatre department too as I aquired a nice WW2 AAF instructor's uniform from ours. When I was in NJROTC in the early 80's, I filled my collection with a lot of WW2-Nam dated items from our storage room. Aquired honestly I might add.. The instructor liked me, so I got what I wanted. When we were robbed, he let me use his personal sword for inspections. I was the only ROTC officer from 2 schools to have a bullion command knot on my sword. Later I picked up a 1918 dated one I used so Cdr. Seimer could take his home. Glad you were able to save it.

Fins..