Tuskegee Airman flight jacket worn by Lt. Col. Woodrow W. Crockett
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@ National Museum of African American History and Culture
Aero Leather Clothing Co., American
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.
Leather, Cloth, Metal, Paint
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Lt. Col. Woodrow W. Crockett
