15th AAF Ike Grouping
Just wanted to share a recent find of mine with the forum.
Last week while browsing online for militaria I happened to run across a stunning Ike jacket. The bullion shoulder patch on it really grabbed my attention. It was listed on auction, and from the time I found the listing it would roughly be a day before it ended. The next day I kept a close eye on the auction in hopes that I could win it. To my surprise no one else put a bid on the jacket, and I ended up winning it for the minimum bid amount of $50! I know we don't usually discuss prices here, but I'm just too proud of this one
Anyways, right after I won the jacket I messaged the seller to see if he knew any history about it. The listing description mentioned it originally belonged to the seller's father. So I knew there was definitely more he could share. His response to my message was -
'Hi, my father was Jack Berkman. He was in the army air corps, discharged in 1945. He was stationed in Rome'
It wasn't the most descriptive response, but I was still extremely appreciative of it. Following his response I decided to ask him if he had any other items connected to his father's service that he'd like to sell. A few minutes later he sent me photos of his father's discharge papers and a souvenir pillowcase. He had them all framed together years ago to honor his father's service. He indicated that he was in the middle of moving houses, and that he'd be willing sell me the framed items. We ended up agreeing on a price and he shipped the extra items to me along with the jacket. He took the papers and pillow case out of the frame to cut down on shipping costs, which was completely fine with me.
The discharge papers were able to tell me a treasure trove of information about this veteran. It shows Mr. Berkman served with the 775th bomb squadron as a clerk typist. He served in eight separate campaigns/battles, all of which were in the European theater. The discharge papers lists them as 'Air combat - Normandy - North Apennines - Northern France - Po Valley - Rhineland - Rome Arno - Southern France' His EAME ribbon reflects these campaigns perfectly with one silver star and three bronze stars.
There are a few oddities on this jacket though. The one that stands out the most to me is the WWI victory ribbon. Being born in 1920, Mr. Berkman would have certainly missed the boat on that award. I'm fairly certain this ribbon was put there to serve the purpose of the WWII victory ribbon. His discharge papers make no mention of being awarded the WWII victory medal, despite him meeting the criteria for it. I believe he was discharged in that weird timeframe where the medal was not yet official, and thus he never received it. It's my guess he picked up the WWI example at a surplus store after the war and thought it would be close enough. The other oddities I noticed was the placement of the collar discs, and the good conduct medal pinned to the exterior pocket. These are the types of oddities I've come to expect with U.S. WWII uniforms though. I'm sure the medal was simply pinned to the pocket for storage reasons. The collar discs I chock up to the veteran being more focused on returning home than his uniform being correct. The jacket shows no evidence of ever having the discs in the correct position, so I'm just going to leave them as they are.
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