Another WAG
Greetings and Salutations,
My first thought on seeing this was Eagle Squadron. That lasted about 5 minutes. Royal Flying Corps = First World War. Another thought was why the Royal Flying Corps and not the Lafayette Escadrille? More Americans served in either the R.N.A.S. or RFC than with the French if, in fact, he was an American at that time. Why is he not wearing US wings? Perhaps, by the second time around, he, for one reason or another, didn't fly and didn't qualify for US pilot's wings. Looking at his uniform I have a hard time making out the ribbons, but, the one worn to the wearer's right looks to me like the US European Theater service ribbon. This was given to US service members on arrival in theater so he would be wearing it in April, 1945. It is too bad the picture crops his right shoulder so that the patch can't be seen. In American service the patch on the right is a former unit in which the member served in a combat theater. I had thought that this practice started only after the war ended, which is another reason why this is an interesting picture.
Some you you will have noticed my spelling of "theater". I was chewed out once for writing "theatre" in a history paper in college, hence theater. Perhaps if we knew how the officer in the picture spelled the word we would know more of his story.
Don
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Last year we said, 'Things can't go on like this', and they didn't, they got worse.
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25-07-10, 01:16 PM
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