US 95TH Bomb Group A-2 Flying Jacket

[BOB COLEMAN]

This A-2 jacket belonged to Staff Sergeant William Elder. Mr. Elder joined the Army Air Corp in 1942. He became part of the 8th Airforce. Mr. Elder was a clerk in the operations section. After the 8th incurred heavy losses in the latter part of 1943, Mr. Elder volunteered for air duty. He trained in the late Winter of 1944 as an air gunner. After his second mission, a flight from England to Rostock in which their plane was under heavy attack, Mr. Elder questioned the sanity of what he had done. On his fourth mission, his bombardier was killed. At that point, he was retrained and moved to the nose of his B-17. On his tenth mission over Paris, Elder's plane was hit in the nose by flak, causing him facial injuries. The pilot called for a check-in. Elder heard the navigator say, "the bombardier is dead." Upon
landing in Horham, England, Elder was rushed to the hospital, where hours later, his crew, filled with debriefing whiskey, rescued him with a ladder from his 2nd Floor hospital bed. He returned to barracks and all partied on.
due to Sgt. Elder not staying in hospital for 24 hours, he was not awarded a purple heart.
Among Elder's 26 decorations are the Air Medal, The D F C, The Polish Warsaw Uprising Medal and the Great Patriotic War Medal from the U S S R.
Elder was a career Air Force man and tired in 1969.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Bob, when it comes to A2 jackets, one with both painting and history, well, it doesn't get much better than that!

Cheers, Ade.

[SS Ring Man]

Great A2 Bob and great history to boot.I have and old boy around me who was in the 100th,and don't you think how hard I have been working to buy that from him.The great thing is he can still were it,the bad thing is he weres it to all the air shows around so you know I'm not the only guy who knows about it.The one thing I have working for me is,my Father in Law and him worked in the Phone Co together and thay bouth were in the Air Reserve as well.So I stand a good chance of one day have it in my collection.

[BOB COLEMAN]

There is an interesting sidenote to this story. An old friend who lived 1/2 mile from me, owned all of Elder's Korean War and Viet Nam War uniforms.
As Mr. Elder was from the Southern part of my country and we lived in the North, that was quite a coincidence. My friend told me that he thought Mr. Elder had passed away due to the fact he had not gotten a Christmas card from him the past two years. Last November, I put up a display of artifacts at a luncheon given for the local W W 2 vets. Mr. Elder's jacket was among the items displayed. I decided to check his hometown to see if there was a listing for him. I found one on the computer and called. Mr. Elder was alive and well. Since then, we have talked several times. It is from him that I learned his story.

[SS Ring Man]

That the fun part of what we do,when you can tuch the face of histoy and have it talk to you as well.Keep up the go work Bob.Thanks Darrell