Sunday, February 28, 2010
Some Oriskany Related Finds
A lot of my hobby time is spent cruising around eBay for U.S. military collectibles from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Within the past week I came across these two items up for auction. I didn't bid on the jacket and the patch got too pricey for my wallet. But I pulled both of the item photos to share with you on the blog. The patch is a near mint condition 1960 USS Oriskany cruise patch. Pretty cool design with some great color. The jacket is one of the highly-prized MA-1 "WEP" nylon flight jackets which became famous with frontline naval aviators in Vietnam. The jacket has an Oriskany connection with the VFP-63 photo recon patch on the jacket's right front shoulder. Enjoy!!!
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1 comment:
Great looking flight jacket but it's not an MA-1. That was a different style of nylon flight jacket which was used by both the Navy and Air Force. This is a WEP, which was originally designed to be the top half of an immersion suit, worn over our flight suit. Inside the jacket you'll see tabs to which the trousers were supposed to be fastened. The WEP was first issued in the 1950s and quickly became popular for pilots and aircrew as a jacket because it was more rugged and comfortable than our leather G-1s. They stopped making them in the early 1970s and genuine ones are rare now. I was able to snag one from our paraloft when I got to my first squadron in 1976 and still have it. It's one of my most prized possessions.
Jack McGonegal
CDR USN (ret)
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