"Blue" Mae West

[priestyboy]

Does anybody have a line on Mae West life preservers worn by the Navy pilots that were blue?

I saw one in a museum display and upon talking to the exibitor was told that some of the pilots/aircrewmen in the Pacific dyed them blue because the Japanese had a habit of straffing them in the water and the yellow ones made them stand out in the water. He said the one in his display came from a TBF/TBM Avenger crewman.

This makes complete sense but in my years of studying this stuff I've never heard this.

Anybody else hear of this?

 

[WW2XL]

Blue Mae West

Hi,

Blue Mae Wests were issue for submarine crews. They could not climb through tight hatches nor move about cramped spaces in traditional surface craft kapok. You see them in period sub newsreels and movies like "Submarine Command" with William Holden.

 

[Dudleydoright]

I have a blue one myself. They weren't dyed, the cotton rubberized material was made in that colour. They were also used by the famous UDT teams for beach recconnaissance.

Dave