Kent, get me one please!
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The Great Flight Jacket Thread (wearing/buying Leather, NOMEX, WEP jackets/patches)
- Thread starter Lt_SNA_USMC
- Start date
Kent, get me one please!
Did four dets to the Lick. Far worse places to go unless it's August and yo spend a week without power after earthquake.. Pops was great and my wife still wears a leave jacket from there and we use the leather luggage I picked up.
Last time I flew into Incirlik, I got intercepted by two Turkish F-4's and got to meet the USAF Colonel who was the commander of Northern Watch.
Didn't get to go shopping after that....
HueySAR
Member
Just a few bits of advice from 24 years of flying Navy. Before you buy anything anywhere, look up "San Diego Leather Factory". You can purchase a Navy-standard brown leather flight jacket. HOWEVER, they will include side entry pockets(hidden behind the outer pockets) and a full-arm insulated zip-out liner. I got one in 1986 on the advice of my first Chief. I've never regretted THAT decision! Secondly, find the advert for "The Tipsy Gypsey" and order ANY patches you plan on putting on your leather jacket from him. There is nothing better looking than a well-worn leather flight jacket with his high-quality leather patches. I'll snap a pic of mine today when I get home and post it.
Rick Baran
ATC(retired)
Rick Baran
ATC(retired)
I think I've been to those places Pugs but compared to many other places I have gone on Det in 19 yrs it does rate pretty low. Just above the Deid and well below it's neighbors to the West in Crete.
Does SD leather do USAF style? Since that is my current service it's my only option.
Sent from my MB525 using Tapatalk 2
Does SD leather do USAF style? Since that is my current service it's my only option.
Sent from my MB525 using Tapatalk 2
HueySAR
Member
Yes, they make both the current AF and USN jackets and accurately recreate several older styles back through WWII.
www.leather.com
www.leather.com
My Winter Jacket! Don't know if they still have this "Dinosaur" jacket, which was issued to me in 1959. It was designed and issued to Nuke Attack Pilots, with accompanying pants of the same warm material. They were designed to be worn under an Exposure "Poopy" Suit, for winter low level nav "Sandblower" training flights over chilly Pacific waters, west of San Francisco. I only flew 3 flights in my whole career in this rig, thank God, needed a shoehorn to get into that tiny A-4 cockpit wearing a Poopy, and it was like a sardine in a tin in the cockpit.
We mainly wore this as a flight jacket with AWGs around Alameda, Fallon & Lemoore in the winter. Mucho warmer than the G-1 Leather! They wear like steel, as mine is still like new after 52 years, except forView attachment 10030View attachment 10031 the cuffs. Do they still have/issue these jackets?
BzB
Question for BusyBee604:
I am very interested in the "WEP" jacket and am thinking about buying one for myself. My question is who had them in the fleet? I ask because I was a prop-driver and in the low and slow community I never saw them. The only poopy suit I ever wore was during Deep Sea Survival, FAETUPAC at North Island as it was mid-Feb and the temps were very cold. I never ran into anyone who had one of these jackets- I flew P-2's, then spent some time in the Training Command, Pensacola. My time was 60's into the '70's, and the only flight jacket I ever saw was the leather G-1's like mine (other than a few guys who missed out and got the Air Force nylon MA-1's).
So, were the WEP's available only to "Nuke Attack Pilots", did that include the VF guys? Were they readily available or were they more on a squadron to squadron availability? I am somewhat bewildered as I was never aware of these jackets during all my time in. I really like their appearance and am considering picking one up, Gibson & Barnes most likely. They appear very comfortable. I have a close buddy who was an A-3 BN and he is not familiar with them either.
If this has been answered elsewhere I apologize. I tried to look things over but may very well have missed any other information.
Many thanks for any information.
BZB may have more info, but here's my $.02: (yes, Google is my friend...)
The "WEPS" jacket came in the the USN/USMC in 1950 as the J-WFS, Jacket, Winter Flying Suit, and was matched with the T-WFS, Trousers , Winter Flying Suit. both procured by BUAER & BUWEP.
In 1960, the jacket was renamed to Jacket-Suits, Flying Winter MIL-S-18342 C (WEP) (Weapons). All of these jackets and trousers were to be worn under the "poopy suit", but fighter pilots being fighter pilots they became very popular as outerwear flight jackets in the 60's - all the way to the late 80's.
Don't think they were ever "authorized" as flight jacket issue, and you only had them/got one if you had a Material Control Officer who had the ordering gouge and a CO who was willing to burn the funds. I'm sure somewhere there's still a warehouse full of the 'trousers"...unless the LSOs gobbled those up like they did the highly-prized, fur-lined "LSO Hoods" (probably left over from Korean era...).
I had to chuckle at the comment wherein "nuclear attack pilots" and "VF guys" appear together in the same sentence. Not sure I've ever seen that before! I was one of the latter (F-4s) , and while there WERE two switches on the pilot's "dog bone" that had to do with that mission ("Bomb Control": Two positions...LABS and Direct; and another labeled "CONV/NUC"...it was either/or, as I recall...may have been an OFF posit)...by the early '70's, at least, that mission was no long in our job jar (Phantoms). So...while our VAL and VAM brethren were growing pale below decks planning SIOP missions...the VF dudes were catching some righteous rays on the flight deck during the TRANSPAC voyage...until we hit the "Bear Box".
In my first VF squadron, your WEP jacket was issued on arrival...it was a squadron policy that all E-7 and above would wear them, with standardized patches. Forward-thinking for 1972...
Best I can recall (after 50+ years)... The suit: WEP jacket & 'bib coverall' trousers, were issued on a blanket requisition from Squadron OpsO for every VA Pilot, from (at that time - NAS Alameda Flight Gear Issue). They were issued more in anticipation of ops over the ocean, when water/air temps were below a certain combo value. At the time ComFairAlameda had 2 low-nav (Sandblower) routes with several legs well out to sea off the SF area coast. Some very cold temps & rough seas in wintertime. I don't recall if our two CAG-9 VF squadrons had them, but the 3 VA squadrons did.
In a previous post on this thread that I made (shortly after the one you quote above, there is a photo of the jacket & a thumbnail of the Mfr's collar label, which notes Kings Point Co. as Mfr & lists a Stock No. Do a bit of Sherlock sleuthing and see if the Mfr has a web site (or is still in business??). There are a number of websites noted in this thread, of dealers in all service's flight jackets. Perhaps, armed with that stock number/nomenclature/manufacturer, you can score a USN Winter Flying Jacket, but I suspect if you do, it won't be cheap!
BzB
In a previous post on this thread that I made (shortly after the one you quote above, there is a photo of the jacket & a thumbnail of the Mfr's collar label, which notes Kings Point Co. as Mfr & lists a Stock No. Do a bit of Sherlock sleuthing and see if the Mfr has a web site (or is still in business??). There are a number of websites noted in this thread, of dealers in all service's flight jackets. Perhaps, armed with that stock number/nomenclature/manufacturer, you can score a USN Winter Flying Jacket, but I suspect if you do, it won't be cheap!
BzB
The best price I could find was $158 at Gibson & Barnes. While not authorized by the current Navy Uniform Regulations, I've seen quite a few wearing them....including a few CAGs.
-ea6bflyr
The best price I could find was $158 at Gibson & Barnes. While not authorized by the current Navy Uniform Regulations, I've seen quite a few wearing them....including a few CAGs.
-ea6bflyr
Yup, that's the one, good find Ea6b.
MIL-S-18342... that's what my 53-yr. old label says, but I'm pleasantly surprised at the price of $158. I had figured some $300+. If you live in a cold/chilly climate, jump on it as they are VERY warm to wear when it's cold (displays your squadron/cruise patches nicely, too)!
BzB
All us Fox-Four-Fighter Types got them – at least the jacket. Didn’t need no stink’n pants though.
My tag says:
Oh, to be a size 40R again! And mine is not for sale, even though the varied and harsh smells it still effuses are evidence of a lot of history... but would make it an odiously odoriferous sale.
My tag says:
JACKET, SUITS, FLYING, WINTER
Specification MIL-S-18342C
KINGS POINT MFG. CO, INC.
CONTRACT NO. DSA 100-70-C-0345
SIZE 40 R -3-
Oh, to be a size 40R again! And mine is not for sale, even though the varied and harsh smells it still effuses are evidence of a lot of history... but would make it an odiously odoriferous sale.