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LOST WORLDS
FLIGHT JACKET COLLECTION
A-2 FLIGHT JACKET
2nd FIGHTER SQUADRON (EAGLE SQUADRON)
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A magnificent,
rare example from the famed EAGLE SQUADRONS. The
second Eagle was the "B" Eagle, hence the terrific BEAGLE SQUADRON pun,
immortalized in the fantastic Italian-made incised leather patch: cigar in mouth, a suave
tuxedoed Beagle glides upon two bombs, one arm smashing a swastika with his cane, the
other lifting aloft a champagne glass holding a naked girl. (This was once a country where
Style was celebrated and emulated -- now men wear sandals, emulating girls, the
language of passivity.)
We obtained this
jacket from Capt. DeForest, credited with 4 1/2 kills, just shy of ace ranking. The Eagle
Squadrons were one of a handful of American units that flew the British Spitfire. They
arose from the celebrated American volunteer squadrons which joined the RAF to fight the
Nazis before our entry into the war. The 2nd was an early unit of the famed Desert Air
Force, campaigning in North Africa.
This A-2 exhibits the classic pigment instabilities and often
flimsy, thinnish horsehides of Aero Leather examples. Note how the left panel
still indicates strong russet pigments while the right is much different in grain
and color. Yet color variations between adjacent sections can result, after
sixty years, from anything like one side getting more light than the other, to
folding and storage. This is not in the least to disparage original A-2s, merely
to rescue them from a "Shroud of Turin" cult worship impressed by a few pathetic
unfortunates, so that actual knowledge be gained, rather than religious fervor.
There's enough fundamentalist insanity in the world right now, thank you. This
fervor, by the way, is widely rejected by baffled AAF veterans who are often
confronted and bothered at reunions and AF functions by a sad effeminate
minority more interested in their flight jackets than service to humanity in
WWII. Some of these ghouls even contact grieving families of departed veterans in
hopes of landing their sickening life's quest, original A-2 jackets. Man is a
dying gender.
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