World War II Military Dress Uniform

Clothing/Dress/Costume

-

Vermont Historical Society

Name/Title

World War II Military Dress Uniform

Entry/Object ID

2024.18.1

Description

Olive green "Eisenhower jacket" with two breast pockets, a full collar, and a five green button closer in the front. On the collar are two polished gold circular pins. On the right side is "U.S." and on the left side is a winged propeller. On the left side is a silver looking "aerial togglier" pin with larger outer wings and a winged bomb-like object encircled in the center. It is unclear whether or not the outer wings move up and down. This pin is an identifier of all bombardier military during and after WWII. It was also given to aerial gunnery men (where our bombardier may have earned it) and at times the Army Radio military would copy it (where our bombardier may have also come across it). Beneath is a small bar pin with a red center stripe and reflecting chromatic rainbow stripes on the exterior. Below this is a larger horizontal pin made up of three ribbons (from left to right) blue with orange stripes and three gold leaves, red with three thin white peripheral strips, and a brown and green pin with the stripes of the Italian (red white and green), Yugoslavian (red white and blue) flags and a white and black outer stripe all of which is covered in three gold stars. The left sleeve bears the patch of American Air Force Corps. (dark blue circular patch with a gold border, white star with a red circle, and gold wings) this patch has the number "15". Beneath and on both sleeves are two dark blue Chevron patches with two chevrons and one almost triangle delineated in gold thread. Both sleeves end with brown buttoned cuffs. The interior is a lighter olive green shade. There is a tag on the back of the neck with "36B," and handwriting inside the left shoulder "D3379." George Davenport was born in Cabot, Vermont on November 9th, 1922. When he enlisted he lived in St. Johnsbury , Vermont. He entered the Army Air Corp. at Fort Devens, Massachusetts on January 27th, 1943. We believe he enlisted in St. Johnsbury. After he completed his basic training he was shipped around to several bases, before being sent to the Army Radio School at Omaha, Nebraska. From there he was shipped to aerial gunnery school at Las Vegas, Nevada. When he completed gunnery school he was shipped to the Crew Replacement Center at Lincoln, Nebraska for crew assignment He was assigned to crew #6887, Lt Russel F. Dwyer's crew as tail gunner. He then trained and was shipped to the 463rd Bomb Group, 772nd Bomb Squadron, Celone Air Base, near Foggia, Italy. While there he kept a diary of all of his 35 missions. His missions were comprised of bombing missions over Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia, and Austria. His first mission was on November 18th and the Target was Vienna. His final mission was on April 20th, 1945 and the target was Graz, Austria. He was one of the lucky ones who made it back from those perilous missions. Upon discharge he had attained the rank of Staff Sgt. He completed his tour April, 1945 and returned to the States in May 1945. He then married his girlfriend, Virginia Spaulding. This occurred the day after she graduated from Montpelier High School. He was a lifelong resident of Vermont and lived much of his life running a small dairy farm in Thetford, Vermont. He passed away September, 2003

Context

This jacket, though in the Eisenhower style belonged to and tells the story of a WWII aerial bomber. Though the collection does have one suit of a member of the American Air Corp. during WWII the style of the jackets is different. There are also other items already accessioned that go to tell an interesting story on the different forms of military uniforms for the Air Corp. such as a leather bomber (like is shown in the photo of this bombardier) and another field jacket. The only other dress suit is of a different style and belonged to a member who was not specifically a bombardier, because of these points it tells a bit of a different story. The other Eisenhower jackets in the collection are from the Army and do not bear the same insignia as this one. With this story, we add another dimension to the collection of something dress actually worn by a bombardier who was high ranking upon discharge and unlike most of the other American Air Corp. jackets in the collection, this one is dress and would not have been used in battle. However, also as it is dress, it bears all the insignia of this particular Sargent and their meanings. Being that he was a Vermont resident this contributes to our history of what specifically Vermonters were doing during World War II, contributing from Vermont History into National History as well. Links to togglier: https://www.ww2wings.com/wings/usaaf/usaafbombardier.shtml https://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/334394-the-little-lauded-togglier-actual-toggle-wing/

Acquisition

Accession

2024.18

Acquisition Method

Gift