If you notice the guy in the middle, he's wearing an officer's jacket with S/Sgt. stripes sewn on. Also note the officer's gabardine cap with enlisted device. The caption says that he bought them in the States anticipating they'd give him a commission when they got to the Middle East, but no such luck. He took it upon himself to sew them on in defiance (and possibly protest) of regulations. There were a lot of Sgt. pilots in the 316th Troop Carrier Group that flew C-47's and gliders as enlisted pilots.
It wasn't incredibly rare for enlisteds to wear officers jackets. The only regulation was no officer's insignia including the cuff braid. Granted you still had to have your normal class A's for formations. I also think that it was common for pre-war F/SGT's to wear officers jackets when the war started---but they may have had their own shade of cuff braid I don't remember.
ReplyDeleteThe guy on the right wearing British BD with US insignia is far more out of regulation than the officer---and that wasn't uncommon at all either. In fact the 1st ID when pulled back for a rest in North Africa at point was issued Brit BD as US stocks were needed for front line troops.
All in all an awesome picture though
I didn't realize that it was so common. "They Also Flew" by Lee Abron is a good resource for info on F/Sgt's, I just recently picked it up. I knew about the AAF getting Brit BD, I'd just never seen an example of an enlisted guy wearing an officer's tunic. I did notice that he didn't have the cuff braid. This guy might not have even had an EM tunic and had to make do until he was commissioned, which most were by mid-'43.
ReplyDelete