The leather jackets with fur collars were not usually worn in the cockpit (and not even taken to Southeast Asia). Yes, the Marines always received the left-overs from old stock when the Air Farce and the Navy came out with new gear.
The Nylon jackets were worn in the cockpit, back in the states and in Japan, in cold weather, but were not needed in Viet Nam. Just as we got rid of our orange flight suits before going "in country," we would never have used the jackets with orange liners in combat. There is the possibility of the liner being visible if ther jacket were to be torn on ejection. Unlike the usual rescue situation in the States, in combat being easily spotted is often not a good thing. Dan http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/danieljmatyola On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 9:03 AM, John Sessoms <[email protected]> wrote: > From: "Daniel J. Matyola" > >> I still have both of my flight jackets from 1963-1968. They both >> still fit, and I still wear both of them occasionally. Neither meets >> your description. >> >> One is the classic Navy issue G-1 brown leather jacket, with mouton >> fur collar. The other is a green nylon jacket with green lining, >> which was also used with the high altitude pressure suit. It was >> always described as green. Had anyone suggested that it was "sage," >> he would undoubtedly have suffered a great amount of abuse. I also >> can't image giving flight crews jackets with orange lining to use in >> combat situations. > > The MA-1 is the Air Force type designation for the Air Force issue flight > jacket that replaced the older leather jackets. The fur collar on the > leather jackets interfered with the straps on the ejection seat or > something. > > The MA-1 was also issued to Navy pilots, and later to Army helicopter pilots > - one of those simplify logistics by having a common issue across all > services ideas. The original MA-1 issued in the 50s had a green lining. > "Sage" is the official nomenclature of the green color chosen - "Jacket, > Flight, Sage Green, MA-1". It's not quite Olive Drab. > > I figured the Marine pilots would get the same issue as the Navy pilots when > it came to flight gear. Maybe not, inter-service rivalries being what they > are. Your green nylon jacket might have been old stock the Navy foisted off > on the Marines. > > http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/pspages/ma1_jacket_sage.php > > The lining was changed to orange in the early 60s to give downed pilots > something to assist search and rescue in spotting them on the groud. With > the jacket zipped up, you can't see the orange lining. > > You'd actually have to put the jacket on turned inside out for the orange > lining to be visible. Or take it off and wave it over your head when the > helicopter got real close. > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
