Need Help to Identify Imperial Uniform Pictures

[vagabonds02]

Wow nice looking uniform. Like the color scheme. I guess you probably already know but the Air Force a Major is a gold oak leaf, for Lt Colonel a silver oak leaf and for a full Colonel a silver eagle holding strikes. At least the gold for major is the same. What is the designation for Lt Colonel of the Air Force. Here the Air Force, Army and Marine ranks are the same, just the Navy is different, you probably knew that too. Do you have any of your Father's military uniforms or medals or ribbons? I have one of my Father's ribbon racks, one rack of mini-medals for the mess dress uniform, one of his dress blues hats and his entire mess dress uniforms for both summer and winter including the hats. I also have all his military records including his flight logs. Oh yeah I also have his original B-4 bag which is a military folding hang-up bag from 1944 and one of his flight suits. My younger brother has all of his presentation medals. Presentation medals are weird they are a regular sized medal and they pin them on you at the presentation but you are not allowed to wear them on the regular uniforms after that, its just for the presentation then back in the box they go forever.
Something else I noticed this thread has been viewed over 307 times and you and I are the only ones commenting on all this information we have exchanged!! That's a lot of lurkers. Is that normal? I really never have done this before so I wouldn't really know.

Mike

[Mike]

Sure many people are following our talk here, it's normal and good of this forum. I've all my father's medals and badges which he himself brought to Israel in 1991, but none of his uniform articles or other paraphernalia. Even back in Leningrad, he used to keep very few of them after his retirement from the service: a cap, a pair of heavy fur-lined boots, a leather navigator's bag - that's all.

[Nicola De Valeron]

Something else I noticed this thread has been viewed over 307 times and you and I are the only ones commenting on all this information we have exchanged!! That's a lot of lurkers. Is that normal? I really never have done this before so I wouldn't really know.

Mike

This conversation is very interesting at least for those here who are interested in different military things, uniforms, etc (Kalafrana, Daniel Briere, me and others). So, keep it up;). And also one thing is amazing: your ancestors served and fought in the armies of two biggest enemies during the Cold War, and now you are peacefully talking about their uniforms on the forum.

[Mike]

Actually my father was responsble for the radar support of Soviet nuclear-armed strategic bombers patrolling the coast of Alaska and the Northern Pacific

[vagabonds02]

Neat Mike!! How long did he do that? You mentioned he was in the "Far East", for how long was he doing that? You also mentioned Leningrad what was he doing there and for how long?
I guess I may have used up my questions about the uniforms I first posted about but here goes anyway - Did the guys on the uniform site know the color of the Hussar uniform? I had asked earlier in one of the posts I noticed Jacob's collar looked multi colored is it and what colors was it? What color was his whole uniform even?
Well Mike looks as if my query about lurkers got a response!
Hey Nichola! Glad to see at least someone is interested. Well not just our fathers were involved I was involved as I had mentioned before I was an electronics tech on the Minuteman Missile System  for three years. But the way I look at it is Mike and I are a couple of "Mikes" who in the language here in the US, are a couple of "military brats" who grew up under a couple of air force Lt colonels which is a different life all by itself and we gained a like of military history and are exchanging information that might at least be a little interesting. I know I have really enjoyed talking with Mike and I really liked the picture and enjoyed showing him some of mine. I actually have quite a few pictures of my father and myself in uniform. I wish I had more of my ancestors in uniform. I had no less than 10 ancestors in the American Civil War, on both sides, North and South! My wife had another 8 on both sides too! But sadly not one picture. I also have some pictures of my Dad during WWII when he was stationed on Adak in the Aleutian Islands with a couple of different flying boats, SA-16 and a couple of PBYs. He is wearing what he called his "pink and tans" or "pink and greens". Same shirts with either dark olive green or tan pants. Since the US Air Force wasn't formed till 1948 he was in the Army Air Force at the time. As a matter of fact he had a good conduct ribbon for both the Army and Air Force but wore the Army one on his Air force uniforms because that was how it was supposed to be worn the 1st one he received. He couldn't wear both.
Mike again I don't know if you are interested or not or already know but enlisted personal when I was in the Air Force basically had three uniforms, olive drab fatigues which is what I wore 99% of the time, what we called 1505s which was a tan summer weight uniform which I only ever wore twice in 4 years and our dress blues which I probably wore a couple dozen times for parades and pictures. Officers like my father had those uniforms and one more called a mess dress which was for full formal wear, tailed dumbwaiter jacket, cumberbun, white gloves and accessories to change from winter to summer, white/black. I mentioned before I have my Dad's mess dress.
Hopefully this is as enjoyable for you guys as it is for me! It has really been fun for me!

Mike

[Mike]

Mike, it's a pleasure to read about your's and your family's military roots and service. I've seen US officers in mess uniforms in movies - really fancy show, but bleak compared to the British Life Guards in their red tailcoats!
This is how a Grodnensky hussar looked: http://dic.academic.ru/pictures/wiki/files/85/Un-hus-gvgr.jpg
My dad spent his young years in Leningrad, was drafted in 1939 and took part as a private and later sergeant in the Winter War against Finland (to my sincere regret I must say...) and later in the WW2 against the Nazi Germany (of which I'm greatly proud). In 1942 he was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant. After the war he studied at the military academy for communications and electronics in Leningrad, where I was born. Upon graduation, he was sent to the Vozdvizhenka airbase near Vladivostok - there I'd spent my childhood years, until he retired from the active service and we came back to Leningrad.

[vagabonds02]

You are sooo correct! I never thought the Mess Dress was really very nice. I always thought the Marine full parade dress was awfully nice looking. I put the "British Life Guards" into Google images and what I saw, I always thought they were called "The Queen's own Welsh Guards". Those are really fancy uniforms!!! Indeed! Thank you again for the link to the Hussar Uniform. Wow green tunic and red pants, now that is nice...  Do you have a link for the color of Jacobs uniform in the 54th too?
Yes you should be really proud of your father fighting the Nazis. Talk about a horrible time in the service. It must have been many times he didn't figure he would make it. Did he ever talk about it at all? My father never talked about his stuff that was scary. He said one time to me he didn't want to upset Mom, so he just didn't. He did accidentally send a cassette tape from Vietnam, which I still have, one time, that the 105mm were going off at a rapid pace and shaking every thing in his trailer which were his quarters. He used to send audio tapes rather than write letters. I wrote him back and told him Mom got pretty upset and he was careful never to do that again! Sounds like you guys stayed for quite a while in the Far East. We were living in Danville Illinois after WW2 and Dad stayed in Active Reserves after the war so he was the first to get called up in 1951 during the Korean War. He went first to Guam and we followed. He flew Air Rescue Mission from Guam to Korea in SB-29s and SC-47s. Then in 1954 we went to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton Ohio. Then to Charleston AFB in Charleston, South Carolina. Then a short stint to Homestead AFB in south Florida for fighter jet training which he passed but they decided his size 44 jacket body was too big for fighters so back to Air Rescue he went. Then from Charleston to Ramey AFB in Puerto Rico, Air Rescue again flying support flights for U-2s. Then to Bergstrom AFB in Austin, Texas with Air Rescue again. Then Headquarters Air Rescue at Orlando AFB in Orlando Florida. While at HQ Air Rescue he was home two weeks and gone 6 weeks for 4 1/2 years. That was kind of hard. Then he became base supply officer and we moved to Hunter AFB in Savannah Georgia, which is where I graduated from High School. Then he got sent to Vietnam as Chief of Material which is a high up supply officer. Then when he came back from Vietnam he went to a special foreign languages school at Andrews AFB in Washington DC for about 9 months then was sent to Buenos Aires Argentina as chief of Material Liason Officer to the Argentine Air Force. Then when they were going to send him back state side they ere going to take away his airplane or stop allowing him to fly so he3 put in his retirement papers and retired. He said he went into the Air Force to be a pilot and if they were going to take that away he quit! While we were in DC is when I got a draft notice so Dad pulled some strings and got me into the Air Force. I spent 12 weeks in Basic training, 9 months in Tech School at Chanute AFB at Rantoul Illinois then 3 years working on Minuteman Missiles at Minot AFB north of Minot North Dakota. That is where my wife and I met and got married and I got copies of the pictures I had you look at and that was almost 43 years ago!
Way more than enough for now later...

Mike

[Mike]

Quite an impressive journey your father had during his service! You've mentioned the B-29 your dad had flown - believe it or not, as a kid I got a four-hour ride in this big bird. More exactly, it was its Soviet clone, Tupolev-4, several squadrons of which were stationed in Vozdvizhenka. Dad was regularly flying it on radar calibration missions and once smuggled me in as a reward for my good school marks. The flight was all over Russian land and without bomb load, but I was provided with an oxygen mask, and one of the pilots gave me a big pistol (unloaded of course) "to keep the wolves away in case of emergency landing". I was so proud! Actually I still am  :-)

[vagabonds02]

Oh Wow Mike that is so great! You certainly should be proud and even now. That is a top notch memory! You say it was a clone? Was it? Which one was built first? I know the F-84 our first Jet fighter was a clone of the MIG basically. It wasn't of course exact but it was close enough! I was never so lucky! I was in a lot of Air force aircraft I've was even in a B-36 Heavy bomber before they were decommissioned but all on the ground not in the air. The only two I got a ride in flying were the SC-54 with the observation bubble on the side and the old reliable C-47. I did one time get to see into the cockpit of a U-2 before the public knew they existed and I knew about the SR-71 Blackbird before the public knew they existed.
Yeah we moved a bit. All of those moves were with family and until Dad went to Vietnam were before I graduated from High School! Then when he retired, since he was an instructor pilot while in the Air Force, a friend of his had started a flight school and snapped Dad up to give flying lessons as an instructor at his school. Dad was only 52 when he retired after 30 years. He worked at the flight school for about 10 years and one of his students had a really rich father, he owned about 15 banks, and the father contacted my Dad to be his corporate pilot on a retainer fee. So for the next 10 years until he was 72 was flying as a corporate pilot.
Oh I just remembered I did get to ride in one more active military aircraft, I got to ride in a KC-135 Tanker, a refueling aircraft and even got to lay down in the boom operators pad while in flight! A little scary cause there is nothing under you and we were at about 35,000 Ft over the Rocky Mountains. We were flying out to Vandenburg AFB, as a reward for being 15th Air Force Maintenance Man of the Month I got to go watch a Minuteman Missile being fired down range, it was one they had pulled out at Minot AFB where I was stationed. I had forgot all about that! One of the bad things of being 65 I guess.
What did your Dad's rank on his shoulder boards look like as a Lt. Colonel?

Mike

[vagabonds02]

Well I guess I answered my own question! the Tupolev came out in 1949 and the B-29 in 1944 of course.

Mike

[Mike]

"Old reliable C-47"... It also had s Russian clone - Li-2, built on a license from Douglas and not just copied part by part like Tu-4. These Li-2s were extensively used for passenger and other civil services across USSR and as military transports. In our twice-a-year trips from Vladivostok to Leningrad and back, I've made the whole 10 thousand kilometers way aboard a Li-2. It took almost two days with 9 or 10 landings. Everybody - except me and other kids - was sick and could hardly touch the sumptuous meals served not aboard the plane like today but at airports during the landings.
The Lt.-Colonels boards have two stars placed side by side, like here (but in my father's case the stars were gold on silver boards):
http://savok.name/uploads/pogony/11.jpg

[vagabonds02]

Ahhh, OK I Googled it and that was the board it showed. So what rank is this board? I'll try and Google it again and see if there is one that is the reverse. Did it have the blue piping too? Nice! Wow 2 days! That isn't even believable. They weren't known for their speed for sure! I knew Russia was an enormous country but that sure puts it in perspective! Now that is what I would call an adventure for sure!!! It sounds like you have as many or more neat memories growing up as an officer's son. It sometimes did have its privileges. But it was sometimes hard too with Dad being gone as much as he was, or at least mine anyway. Now that you say that about the license to build them I do remember reading that one time. Another thing that isn't much fun growing older when the memory quits. Good thing there are pictures to jog it!! Speaking of.....
Here is another link for you. I up loaded about 6 more photos for you.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vagabonds02/8682689705/in/photostream
The one of me in the Dress Blues is I think the only one I have in my dress uniform. I actually got out with one more strip. Here I was just a Sargent and I got out as a Staff Sargeant.  The one of my Dad and older brother must have been taken in 1945 after the war. The others are self explanatory. I'll have to look around a while and see if I can identify the flying boat it isn't a SA-16 its a precursor to it. I have about three more to show you too but I have to scan them in first. One is of my Dad on Mt Moffet on Adak. Adak had one of those runways that was too short and you had to either land one way and not over shoot your landing and run into the ocean or the other way run into Mt Moffet! Well they fixed the one way they tore down Mt Moffet!!!! Another runway that was a bad one was on the Azores Islands, it had a 4 drop right in the middle of the runway always fun when you are slowing down and then you are airborne again. Also the one in Greenland you had to contend with a glacier being too close!
Enjoy the pictures...

Mike