An attractive dark brown leather, issue jacket with russet-brown elastique hem and cuffs. The jacket has a single, functional front zipper with collar snaps, and a hook and eye fastener at the throat (the hook portion is no longer present). The jacket was made by J.A. Dubow Mfg. Co. of Chicago, IL, and has the one-piece label peculiar to Dubow jackets made under the W535 AC 27798 contract. The exterior leather is still supple and exhibits only minor wear and flaking along a few of the edge seams, and on the forearms of the sleeves. The cuffs are heavily frayed, and there are a few tiny holes in the hem fabric too. The jacket is embellished with a large aircraft name on the back: “Memphis Blues,” and a mission tally on the front labeled “E.T.O.” (65 missions and a large “D” superimposed on the 38th mission). The paint is in excellent condition with light flaking along some of the leather texture, but clear and crisp throughout. A leather name strip is present on the left breast: “M. E. MITCHELL,” but a handwritten name is present on the interior: “LT. HEMPHILL - 572.” The interior of the jacket has a slightly stained, but otherwise fully intact brown linen lining.
Included with the jacket are two WWII black-and-white photographs. The first shows the crew of “Dode Lee’s Memphis Blues” standing in front of their aircraft (a Martin B-26 Marauder). The crew are wearing B-10 jackets in the photo, but the crewman second from the left has a mission tally box painted on the right breast that is nearly identical to this one. The second picture shows a six-man crew standing in front of a different B-26. The man standing in the second row left is the same gentleman with the tally box in the previous photograph.
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