ABOUT THE OTHER A-2 JACKET

Today's post is about the other A-2 jacket :the US Navy intermediate cold weather jacket A2 .

the A2 superseded the famous N1 in 1960/61 and its first version was slightly different from the model known nowadays .

the first model had no adjustable straps at the waist ,but some at the cuffs.the other noticeable difference was the presence of a removable collar strap .To be noticed also its reinforced cuffs .

The model featured today is the second version of the jacket ,with smaller tag and the still reinforced cuffs.This jacket belonged to a seabees who was on board the CVA 34 during the Vietnam war .

 USS Oriskany CVA 34 was an aircraft carrier launched in October 1945. She made one Korean war combat cruise, from September 1952 to May 1953.

Following the end of the Korean conflict,she continued her Pacific Fleet service for more than two more decades, deploying regularly to the Western Pacific for tours of duty with the Seventh Fleet. She was out of commission from January 1957 until March 1959, during which time she was upgraded with a new angled flight deck, steam catapults, an enclosed "hurricane" bow and many other improvements that permitted safer operation of high-performance aircraft. In 1961, she became the first aircraft carrier to be fitted with the revolutionary Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS).

Oriskany's second war began with her 1965 WestPac cruise, during which her planes hit targets in North and South Vietnam. Several more combat tours followed as the Southeast Asian conflict waxed and waned. Tragedy struck the carrier on 26 October 1966, during her second Vietnam War deployment, when fire ravaged her forward compartments, killing 44 members of her crew and air group.She was repaired in the U.S., returned to the war zone in mid-1967 and rendered assistance to USS Forrestal when that carrier also suffered a major fire. Following twenty-six years of service, USS Oriskany was decommissioned in September 1976. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in July 1989 and sold for scrapping in 1994. However, after a prolonged effort that exhibited the perilous state of the domestic ship-breaking industry at the end of the Twentieth Century, she was repossessed in 1997 and spent nearly a decade awaiting final disposition. On 17 May 2006, following careful preparations, Oriskany was deliberately sunk off Pensacola, Florida, to serve as an artificial reef and sport diving attraction.

KEEPING UP WITH THE G-1 CONTRACTS

Jacob Dubow immigrated to the U.S. and established Dubow Glove Co. in Chicago in 1912. The company manufactured work gloves and were popular enough for the company to expand their operations in 1918. This coincided with their foray into the sporting goods market. The company eventually changed its name to J.A. Dubow Mfg. The sporting goods division came into its own in the 1920's and produced some quality baseball gloves. The company was able to gain the endorsements of some of the star baseball players of the day.As a lot of you already know ,the company was part of the war effort producing some of the best looking A2 jackets but also some rare early 50's G-1.....

Yes!!, early 7823 jackets were issued and worn during the Korean war .Today up for your consideration ,here is on of them,a rather rare G1 :the J.A. Dubow Sporting Goods Corp. MIL-J-7823 [aer] from the early 50's.Among flyght jacket collectors Dubow is mostly known  for its great A2 jackets or for its baseball gloves but few people know that the company also had two contracts with the U.S. Navy ,contract NO. N383S-4833A and  NO. N383S-4765A for G-1 jackets.These jackets are fairly rare, so finding an example in good condition is great. The Dubow jacket has a number of unique design features very reminiscent of the M-422a design : long body and very short sleeves, front leather panels wrapping around the jacket so the back is smaller.The wind flap is small and pockets that are far from the zipper.