I was out spending money today and went into a used clothing store to buy some jeans for my dad. I visit this store called Savers in Reno from time to time. They have used clothing in there in very good shape for excellent prices. I have bought several pairs of Levi's and other brands of jeans in there which were in excellent shape for about six to ten bucks and a very nice London Fog jacket for about twenty bucks. I have seen essentially brand-new Dockers pants in there for a song...
After picking out two pairs of jeans for dear, old dad, I went looking for a light jacket for him. He wears an old, dirty, torn, worn-out rag I bought new in 1995 for about $30. He wears it for working outside when he saws down trees for firewood, splits said firewood, mows the yard, works under the cars, et cetera. I looked at maybe half a dozen but didn't find one I thought he'd like. Then I saw it...
The label inside, toward the top where your neck is reads that it is a JACKET TYPE A-2, JACKET FLYER'S LEATHER, U.S. ARMY AIR FORCE, MSN NO. 8415, DLA-100-87-R-0615, CONTRACT OR ORDER NO. 1958-A2-8. This jacket is in 100% super-primo condition. I can find no scratches, tears, rips, discolorations, et cetera in the leather shell and no defects whatsoever in the lining. It is chocolate brown in color and has the two snapflap pockets on the outside and numerous pen pockets inside. The cuffs and waist are of that expando type of thing you find on baseball jackets. It has shoulder epaulets and snaps to keep the collar tabs down. It looks like the real item, although I have never seen one up close. My cousin, who flew F-14s off carriers and instructed in choppers while in the Marines, may have had one although I think the services were issuing the sheeny-green sateen ones back in the middle 70s when he went in. If I had bought the digital camera I was going to buy today, I could take a picture and someone out there could tell me what I have in this jacket. But I spent gobs of cash on other things, so no pictures.
I don't know for certain, but I think I remember seeing somewhere that the government (that's you and me, my fellow Americans) pays somewhere between 250 and 450 dollars for these jackets. I could be wrong. I paid $55 for Daddy's mine. Did I do OK?
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