AVG tribute jacket

[RCSignals]

My AVG jacket

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[RCSignals]

More

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[Gunslinger]

Lovin it!

[crismans]

Sweet! Great leather and I really like that blood chit.

[Mac]

Wonderful jacket RC! Congrats.

Love the AVG; I have a signed copy of Tex Hill’s book that I treasure. I hope you won’t mind if I indulge in a bit of a Flying Tiger tribute in this thread!

Here’s Tex Hill, a double ace with the original AVG and later a Brig. General:




Tex “landed long” after a mission to intercept Japanese fighters on 10 December 1941, three days after the US entry into the war:




RT Smith; he once spotted what he thought was his buddy, Phil Cochrane, giving a speech on an airfield and so he dived his P-51 and buzzed the speaker at 450 mph. Turned out to be Lord Louis Mountbatten.




Greg ‘Pappy’ Boyington, who would later command the VMA-214 Black Sheep squadron, become the (official) top US Marine ace of WWII, and win the Medal of Honor:




General Claire Chennault, commander of the AVG and a truly remarkable man:



A photo I took not long ago of the same jacket Chennault is wearing above; the jacket is now in the Smithsonian:




Third Squadron "Hell's Angels" in formation in 1942:




Third Squadron group photo in 1942, Dick Rossi is the first guy seated on the left:




Tex Hill is second from the left in this photo:




Some Tigers at reunion just a few years ago:



Tex Hill is third from the left, Chuck Older is fourth and Dick Rossi is fifth.

Sadly, all of the Tigers in this picture have now passed away. Ken Jernstedt, sixth from the left, passed away just over a year ago. It’s amazing to think how much the world changed during his lifetime.

Truly this was the greatest generation.

[RCSignals]

Thank you. It has been a project in the works for a while.

Great photos Mac. I have the book " The pictorial history of the Flying Tigers ". Signed by Tex Hill.

The AVG used a variety of jackets from civilian private purchase A2, issue A2 issue M422 (g1) Even though the Chinese Airforce purchased mostly USN style flight wear


Many people have said that only Willis and Geiger M422 were used however Tex Hill's jacket was a Gordon and Ferguson m422 type with the one wider pocket. I am not going to argue with that. I based my jacket on the G&F

Chennault's A2 is an interesting jacket and appears to be a heavy horsehide, not unlike the current Lost Worlds A2