Questions About the United States Navy Peacoat

[Peacoat]

Bet you're right. The address stenciled on the lining says, "Great Lakes, Illinois." It doesn't get colder and windier than that!


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Great Lakes is, and has been, the location of Navy Boot Camp, so it doesn't surprise me that the coat has that stenciled on the lining. What does surprise me is that someone's name is not stenciled on the lining. The wording seems to be more generic as if the coat had been assigned to a company or a building. Have never seen that on a lining before. The mystery continues.

[Marc Chevalier]

That's true, there is no individual's name on the lining or anywhere else.


I guess, then, that "U.S.N.T.G." stands for "United States Navy Training Ground"?


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[Peacoat]

I would think that would be close. "Naval" instead of "Navy" would be more accurate. Not sure what the "G" stands for, but "Ground" is as good a guess as any. Could be "Group" as the Navy likes use the word "Group" when talking about formations of ships. Whatever it stands for, it certainly was in a cold part of the country!

[green papaya]

maybe it was a private purchase pea coat that a sailor bought himself?

could be commercially made, and bought at a surplus store

[Peacoat]

maybe it was a private purchase pea coat that a sailor bought himself?

could be commercially made, and bought at a surplus store

A good idea, except that it doesn't appear to have been owned by an individual seaman.

Perhaps the coat was for use on guard duty on especially cold nights when a regular peacoat just wasn't enough coat? It could have been assigned to a company and loaned out for duty? Even if true, there is still no explanation where it came from. The private purchase idea initially sounds plausible, but I just can't see a supply chief going outside Navy procurement and purchasing a coat on the civilian market. They aren't wired that way. And, as earlier established, the coat does not appear to have been privately owned.

Anybody else have any ideas? So far we have more questions than we have answers.

[3rdGen1940]

Hey Guys. I've read this entire thread and I hope y'all can help me find more information about my peacoat.

Here's the story as far as I know it: It was my grandfather's coat. He was in the Navy during WW II. He wore it pretty much everyday until he was murdered in 1964. The house he lived in was abandoned in 1972 and was condemned. In 2004, I learned from my father that the house was still standing in what had become a very bad neighborhood. To my surprise many of the antiques and furnishings were still in the house and the coat was one of the things I took.

My first question is the date. I believe my grandfather graduated high school in 1940 so I would assume that it was issued around that date. Here's a picture of the tag:


As you can see, there is no name or rate but my father confirmed that it is my grandfather's peacoat.

Here's a picture of the pocket interior:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y61...5/DSC01062.jpg

It seems like the same gold or tan that people have mentioned before.

Here's a question that hasn't been asked. What is the proper way to wear a peacoat? Here's a pic of how I have been wearing it:


Is this the correct way?

[Peacoat]

You obviously have a WWII peacoat with four rows of buttons. The Navy way is to wear the coat with all eight of the buttons buttoned at all times.

You are a civilian, and there are no Drill Instructors around to gig you for the way you wear the coat. You don't have to follow the Navy way; however, this is a double breasted garment, and it should never be worn completely unbuttoned. I normally leave the bottom button unbuttoned on my peacoats, and button the rest of them. This relieves the strain on the threads of the bottom button. Buttons are not easy to sew back on; that exercise can best be avoided by not stressing the bottom button threads. If it is cold enough for a peacoat, then all of the other buttons should be buttoned. If walking or standing for more than a few minutes, I will button the bottom button as well. While seated in a car, or at a football game, I leave it unbuttoned.

I wear my WWII coat the same as you wear yours--top button is buttoned. If it isn't cold enough to button the top button, or the other buttons, I wear something else.

Interesting that there was still anything left in the house, especially a peacoat, when you visited.

[wetmarble]

Very nice coat. You're lucky to have found it.

I agree, it is definitely a World War 2 era peacoat. Without a rating badge on the sleeve, it's difficult to pin it down to a specific year, however, since you have a history to go with the coat, your estimate of 1940 is likely to be correct.

As for wearing it, wear it in whatever manner you find most comfortable.

Personally, I wear my 6 button coat with all 3 buttons buttoned and the top button unbuttoned. My 6 button coat is a 42 however and I really should be wearing a 40. The extra room in the coat means that stress on the button thread is not a factor.

[wetmarble]

New Info from an ebay auction:

I believe it is vintage because it has the person's name stenciled on the inside plus an ID number that is only 7 digits long meaning it is his service number. [The Army and Air Force replaced service numbers with Social Security Numbers in 1969. The Navy and Marine Corps followed suit in 1972.] Social security numbers were stenciled in after 1972.

This is confirmed here: http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/mil...y-numbers.html

[Peacoat]

Somewhat off topic, but still tangentially related: Even though the Army didn't start using SSNs until 1969, the last four digits of the SSN were stenciled on everything we owned. This was during the time the service numbers were in use, and well before the SSN became the method of identification.