Although you don’t see it as much, the kind of nose art that reached its zenith during World War II is still with us. I recently saw a shot of some pretty risqu art on the nose of an A-10. It’s still out there.
Another military tradition also popular during World War II was the decorated flight jacket, with the A2 being the most popular variant. As personal totems, these jackets got festooned with unit and campaign patches but also custom artwork, often specified or even designed by the jacket’s owner. And each jacket told its own unique story.
The other day, John Slemp, a professional photographer from Atlanta, contacted me about an interesting project. He’s assembling a photo record (in book form) of as many decorated flight jackets as he can find. “In photographing the flight jackets of World War II veterans,” he wrote in an email, “I have come to realize that ‘real people’ wore them, sweated in them, and in some cases, died in them. They are a symbol of who they were as individuals, as members of a unit, and of a nation. In a very tangible way, they depict the service of the owner, and as objects they too are important.”
Slemp’s project is just getting underway. He has shot a couple of jackets and is looking for more. “I’mseeking flight jackets of any air crewman from World War II, especially if they have hand-painted artwork on one or both sides of the jacket. The condition is irrelevant, as I want to show the jackets as they are today. Equally important would be to know the owner’s history and/or service record, with perhaps an original photograph of the owner in uniform. If a museum wishes to lend their artifacts, I’m willing to travel to their location to make the images,” Slemp told me.
What a terrific project. As we all know, as each day passes, there are fewer World War II veterans alive to tell their stories. But I suspect just as the jackets have been passed down, so has the history behind them. If you know of any flight jackets that meet Slemp’s design brief, you can contact him directly at [email protected]. I can’t wait to see the book.
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