Another beautiful example of a painted A2 jacket. This wonderful garment belonged to S/Sgt Ted F. Wasilkowski who flew with the 568th Bomb Squadron, 390th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force. Born in Jun 8 1925 and a native of Brooklyn NY, Ted would enlist with the Air Force, Jun 8 1943, on this 18th birthday.
390th Bomb Group records (click here) show that Ted deployed after training to the UK joining the 390th bomb group on crew 21, flying his first mission on the 20th Jan 1945. He would go on to fly 30 missions, 17 of which would be on B-17G airframe no. 46134 known as 'I'll be seeing you/Dotsy". This aircraft flew with the 8th Air Force from May 44 - the end of the war and was eventually scrapped at Kingman Arizona. Ted stayed with the Air Force, changed his surname to just Wasil, married in 1949, and served as first a photographer, then in Press relations. He would be heavily involved with press relations for the Mercury and Apollo programs and is memorialised on the NASA website.
The jacket itself is an Aero Leather 42-18775 from a May 1942 contract of 50,000 jackets. It comes complete with its original m41 Talon zipper. The artwork itself, whilst faded is still clear, and is not the only example from this artist in the 390th, notably one from an aircraft called "The Bad Egg" in the 390th BG collection. What's super great is you can match some of the names on the bombs to various missions that Ted flew on, notably Datteln (3/7/45) and Hamburg (3/11/45) are the bottom left two bombs.
Condition
This is well used and worn. Whilst still pretty supple, expect light cracking to the leather throughout and some holes, especially near the cuffs. There are two period repairs, one above Ted on the front, and one of the right sleeve. I believe when these were made, the tailor opened up the front of the jacket and closed it again, but retained the original zipper. There are two more modern repairs (not done by me), a carefully stitched repair to the lining around the collar, and the cuffs have been replaced with some additional repairs to the leather. Don't let these detract from a very nice displayable jacket.
Size
- Tagged a size 40
- I can't recommend this jacket for wearing.