Recent content by riffraff

Selling my Saddlery A-2. 1988-contract. Very good condition. Zips/snaps in excellent shape along with the knits. Patches shown for illustration purposes and not included. Minimal wear to lining. $120 plus postage Measurements: pit to pit: 22.5 inches shoulder-to-shoulder: 20 inches Length: 25.5...

That looks like one of the pre-1988 Cooper jackets. These were for sale at USAF base exchanges a year or so before USAF reintroduced the Saddlery jackets. They were available with blank nameplate (as this one is) or without it

I've said the same about just about every leather jacket I've had -- none of them fit me right. Ditched them all but the Cooper is still with me. It remains the best-fitting of them.

I'd have to defer to someone currently serving. 20+ years ago the jackets coming out of Pop's in Turkey ranged from minor mods to full custom-made jackets.

I really don't know what to make of your jacket. The knits on all the 88-contract jackets (and all the early Coopers) I've seen are all the same purplish-brown color. Yours has what I've always known as the later Cooper knits. It's literally like someone was making a Saddlery USAF jacket and...

And no sooner than I start opining on zippers, I start finding oddities :) . Not sure when this 1988 contract Saddlery was made but certainly the first I've seen with what appears to be a factory Talon zipper.

That's the brass zipper that was used on the Cooper jackets. That one was never chrome. Even later versions have a rectangular brass YKK puller. I would try heating the glue with a hair dryer and see if it loosens at all. You can scrape it away with a small knife. Is the command patch velcro...

Interesting jacket. Hard to tell from the photos but my gut reaction is a production line mistake. It looks like a military lining was accidently put into the civilian jacket or someone grabbed the wrong labels. Pure speculation, of course. The jacket appears to be a later production Cooper but...

Not sure what "Breaking the Barriers" is but it's almost assuredly something added, post-purchase. The jacket itself is one of the later-production Cooper jackets. The label and brown knits distinguish these from the earlier models.

Got into a discussion with a gent about his claimed "USAF-issue", orange tag Cooper A-2 flight jacket. This inevitably led to disagreement re: his position that his jacket was a USAF issued item -- by virtue of it saying so on the orange tag/label. So, thought I'd revisit the topic and walk...

Thought I would add my cav-hat spin-off. When I switched from the Army to USAF, I brought my Cav hat tradition with me -- much to the dismay of my boss! Both are Stetson-brand

I wasn't looking for one but picked a nice, little-worn Akubra Snowy River for the princely sum of $1.25 plus shipping.

You didn't mention in your OP whether your original blouse is green or brown. The Dunkirk denims would have been the original brown denims. The green color came along ~1941 and the blouse itself going to the economy pattern (no pocket pleats, etc) in 1942. Other than color change, there was...

Not sure when this style of crown logo was used? It predates the current, colored version. A couple of my first hats had this style (I bought them used on eBay in the late 1990s)

Thanks, Johnnycanuck! Looks like the round size tag continued on after the colored crown logo was introduced. This is a 1130 Drover -- apparently marketed via Outback Trading Co