Tuskegee Airman flight jacket worn by Lt. Col. Woodrow W. Crockett

Object Details

Manufactured by: Aero Leather Clothing Co., American
Worn by: Woodrow W. Crockett, American, 1918 - 2012
Subject of: Tuskegee Airmen, 1941 - 1946; 100th Fighter Squadron, American, 1942 - 1945

Description: A Type A-2 leather Tuskegee Airman jacket worn by Woodrow W. Crockett. The jacket is dark brown leather with a fabric lining. It has a snap-flap patch pocket on either size of the zipper at waist level with knit cuffs and waistband. On the left breast are three stitched patches. The uppermost is a rectangular leather patch with dark stamped letters reading [W. W. CROCKETT], the middle patch is also leather and rectangular and embossed with the US Army Air Forces pilot insignia, two feathered wings extending from a striped shield. Below this is a very faded painted leather patch whose decoration was once the insignia for the USAAF 100th Fighter Squadron, a winged feline perched on top of a globe. The paint is considerably deteriorated but remnants of the design in red, white, blue, yellow and brown paint are visible. On the PL shoulder is another circular patch, originally the emblem of the 15th Air Force. It is also significantly chipped but features a blue background beneath a white star with an embedded red circle and yellow wings. The number 15 appears between the wings. Across the back shoulders of the jacket is an oval area with stitching holes, indicating another patch, now missing, had been fixed there at some point.

Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Lt. Col. Woodrow W. Crockett

1942

Medium: leather, cloth, metal, paint
Dimensions: H x W (Laid Flat): 26 1/4 x 24 in. (66.7 x 61 cm); Waist: 19 1/2 in. (49.5 cm); Chest (Across Shoulders): 18 1/2 in. (47 cm); Inseam (Arm - shoulder to cuff): 24 in. (61 cm); On Form: 30 x 33 x 15 1/2 in. (76.2 x 83.8 x 39.4 cm)

Place made: Beacon, Dutchess County, New York, United States, North and Central America

See more items in: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
Classification: Clothing-Historical
Exhibition: Double Victory: The African American Military Experience
On View: NMAAHC (1400 Constitution Ave NW), National Mall Location, Community/Third Floor, 3 053

National Museum of African American History and Culture

Topic: African American; Aeronautics; Clothing and dress; Military; Tuskegee Airmen; World War II

GUID (Link to Original Record): http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd5fc87178e-cd01-4bca-87aa-b6fb9e85fcb1