(This is long. So, if you don’t want to hear me run my soup cooler, skip ahead.)
I am a G-1 snob.
I admit it. I flew in the Marines and the G-1 was the jacket of my people. I wore one. My buddies wore one. My instructors wore one. My students wore one.
Every Brill Creamed, pants too high, tie too short, black and white pictured, cigar-chomping, fire pissing Marine aviator hanging on every identical, pea green, cinder block wall in every squadron that I'd ever been in wore one.
So I had in my head an idea of an absolute ideal "peak of the Roman Empire to the last millisecond" sort of G-1 jacket. The one sewn before, not quite. The one sewn after, too late. Of course as these things go, the more you learn the less you know. As I hunted for the ideal jacket, it turned out that anything that I thought I knew of the G-1, and its predecessor the M-422a, was invariably wrong. They never made a jacket with that big a collar? Wrong. The M-422as all had scalloped pocket flaps? Wrong. And so on.
Even among the big repro makers, the variation was bewildering. I saw both a very smooth, red hued, rust collared, purple knitted, chrome tanned jacket and a very charactered, blackish brown, dark collared, brown knitted M-422a....and that was supposedly from the same original maker's design. Between different repro makers, the difference was even more pronounced.
To stir the pot further, there was the on again, off again discussion of the "death of the G-1" with its allowance of cowhide, poly knits, Dynel collars, and roomier fits; with equally valid preferences on both sides. And with the undeniable truth that G-1s with these features were now rapidly equaling (if not exceeding) the production span of the older, more traditional jacket.
So I said all that, so that I could say this.
I like the 100 Mission Cockpit G-1. I mean I really like it. I like it far better than I would have expected to, being the G-1 snob that I am. It's honestly hard to fit this jacket exactly in the pantheon of G-1s/M-422as. In some ways, it really reminds me of an earlier jacket. And yet it has a few things (poly cuffs/brass zipper) that would place it later in jacket's history. I'm sure that an expert in 50s-60s G-1s (which I am not) would be able to place it as being representative of a certain age. All I know is that it comes interestingly close to that ideal G-1 that I always had in my mind.
The Leather:
I guess being a G-1 snob would also make me a goatskin snob. The issue jackets that I had or had seen were all tough as nails. If they were beautiful, they were beautifully tough as nails. Some aftermarket jackets to me almost look like a caricature of a flight jacket...too beautiful to issue to some shavetail who, if he doesn't wind up in the drink with it, is almost certainly going to bash that leather on every single exposed rivet head in the cockpit.
Interestingly, the "mil-spec" Cockpit G-1 that I saw in the Pensacola Museum gift shop was one of the offenders. Some have spoken the praises of the Cockpit jacket, so perhaps I saw an unusual batch. But the 100 Mission leather seems night and day different from the soft, processed leather of the Cockpit G-1s I saw. This stuff is tough, grainy, and flat in sheen. I don't know what it looked like before they aged this stuff, but it now looks exactly like the old, beat up G-1s that I was familiar with. It's honestly about the best representation of "utility" flight jacket leather that I've ever seen, understanding that I lived in a certain era of the jacket.
The Style:
As I said, it’s hard to place this jacket exactly in time, which may be one of its charms. If I was to guess, I’d say mid to late 60s. The collar is clearly intended to be aged mouton. Out of the box the collar looked like a bad bathroom rug. But in just a day or two, it began to develop the customary “nubby” aspect that one would associate with the G-1. It is still quite soft however, which makes me wonder how they got it to look this way. My jacket came with a collar that was quite blonde. Personally I would have preferred the more reddish orange that many of the online pictures show. It looks a little teddy bear-like as it stands. Still, I’m not expert enough to say that this color is ahistoric in any way. Size wise, the collar is relatively small though slightly pointed, which again seems like a bit of a paradox. I quite like it. And I also appreciate that the collar will stand up to a certain degree which is something that can’t be said for every repro (historic or not I can’t say, though my jackets always had stiff collars).
The pockets have a very sensibly exciting scallop to them. Not quite enough to peg the jacket as WWII vintage. But enough to make the casual observer think the jacket is vintage in some undefined way.
The zipper is standard YKK with a paper clip, but antiqued. Normally, I don’t buy too much into the “pre-vintaged” thing. It can so easily look obviously fake and I, as I have mentioned, am a snob. For all that, the antique zipper is subtly done enough that it could almost be confused with a real tarnished brass zip from a distance. Up to the individual as to your feelings about big brass vs small nickel…it doesn’t bother me a bit.
Incidentally, that pre-vintaged thing goes for the leather as well. No one dragged this jacket behind a truck. It looks like an old G-1 is supposed to look and not like an old G-1 never looks….unless you made it look that way.
Purely guesswork on my part, but I’d say that the knits are the doubled over, modern poly knits that are on the standard mil spec Cockpit G-1. Historical or not depends on when you want to say this jacket is from. They are certainly comfortable and functional enough. One interesting note is that the sleeve knits are quite long. If sleeve tunneling gives you the hives, then take note. I don’t normally like the effect myself, but honestly it doesn’t look egregious on this jacket. I think the narrowed sleeves help it escape that “I’m wearing my daddy’s jacket” look.
Final notes. USN stamped in the windflap and not stenciled behind the collar. Lining is fairly coarse standard brown nylon as one might expect in any late era jacket. A few labels inside, but no escape maps, Lil’ Abner Comics, or Ovaltine advertisements.
Sorry….snob, remember?
I am a G-1 snob.
I admit it. I flew in the Marines and the G-1 was the jacket of my people. I wore one. My buddies wore one. My instructors wore one. My students wore one.
Every Brill Creamed, pants too high, tie too short, black and white pictured, cigar-chomping, fire pissing Marine aviator hanging on every identical, pea green, cinder block wall in every squadron that I'd ever been in wore one.
So I had in my head an idea of an absolute ideal "peak of the Roman Empire to the last millisecond" sort of G-1 jacket. The one sewn before, not quite. The one sewn after, too late. Of course as these things go, the more you learn the less you know. As I hunted for the ideal jacket, it turned out that anything that I thought I knew of the G-1, and its predecessor the M-422a, was invariably wrong. They never made a jacket with that big a collar? Wrong. The M-422as all had scalloped pocket flaps? Wrong. And so on.
Even among the big repro makers, the variation was bewildering. I saw both a very smooth, red hued, rust collared, purple knitted, chrome tanned jacket and a very charactered, blackish brown, dark collared, brown knitted M-422a....and that was supposedly from the same original maker's design. Between different repro makers, the difference was even more pronounced.
To stir the pot further, there was the on again, off again discussion of the "death of the G-1" with its allowance of cowhide, poly knits, Dynel collars, and roomier fits; with equally valid preferences on both sides. And with the undeniable truth that G-1s with these features were now rapidly equaling (if not exceeding) the production span of the older, more traditional jacket.
So I said all that, so that I could say this.
I like the 100 Mission Cockpit G-1. I mean I really like it. I like it far better than I would have expected to, being the G-1 snob that I am. It's honestly hard to fit this jacket exactly in the pantheon of G-1s/M-422as. In some ways, it really reminds me of an earlier jacket. And yet it has a few things (poly cuffs/brass zipper) that would place it later in jacket's history. I'm sure that an expert in 50s-60s G-1s (which I am not) would be able to place it as being representative of a certain age. All I know is that it comes interestingly close to that ideal G-1 that I always had in my mind.
The Leather:
I guess being a G-1 snob would also make me a goatskin snob. The issue jackets that I had or had seen were all tough as nails. If they were beautiful, they were beautifully tough as nails. Some aftermarket jackets to me almost look like a caricature of a flight jacket...too beautiful to issue to some shavetail who, if he doesn't wind up in the drink with it, is almost certainly going to bash that leather on every single exposed rivet head in the cockpit.
Interestingly, the "mil-spec" Cockpit G-1 that I saw in the Pensacola Museum gift shop was one of the offenders. Some have spoken the praises of the Cockpit jacket, so perhaps I saw an unusual batch. But the 100 Mission leather seems night and day different from the soft, processed leather of the Cockpit G-1s I saw. This stuff is tough, grainy, and flat in sheen. I don't know what it looked like before they aged this stuff, but it now looks exactly like the old, beat up G-1s that I was familiar with. It's honestly about the best representation of "utility" flight jacket leather that I've ever seen, understanding that I lived in a certain era of the jacket.
The Style:
As I said, it’s hard to place this jacket exactly in time, which may be one of its charms. If I was to guess, I’d say mid to late 60s. The collar is clearly intended to be aged mouton. Out of the box the collar looked like a bad bathroom rug. But in just a day or two, it began to develop the customary “nubby” aspect that one would associate with the G-1. It is still quite soft however, which makes me wonder how they got it to look this way. My jacket came with a collar that was quite blonde. Personally I would have preferred the more reddish orange that many of the online pictures show. It looks a little teddy bear-like as it stands. Still, I’m not expert enough to say that this color is ahistoric in any way. Size wise, the collar is relatively small though slightly pointed, which again seems like a bit of a paradox. I quite like it. And I also appreciate that the collar will stand up to a certain degree which is something that can’t be said for every repro (historic or not I can’t say, though my jackets always had stiff collars).
The pockets have a very sensibly exciting scallop to them. Not quite enough to peg the jacket as WWII vintage. But enough to make the casual observer think the jacket is vintage in some undefined way.
The zipper is standard YKK with a paper clip, but antiqued. Normally, I don’t buy too much into the “pre-vintaged” thing. It can so easily look obviously fake and I, as I have mentioned, am a snob. For all that, the antique zipper is subtly done enough that it could almost be confused with a real tarnished brass zip from a distance. Up to the individual as to your feelings about big brass vs small nickel…it doesn’t bother me a bit.
Incidentally, that pre-vintaged thing goes for the leather as well. No one dragged this jacket behind a truck. It looks like an old G-1 is supposed to look and not like an old G-1 never looks….unless you made it look that way.
Purely guesswork on my part, but I’d say that the knits are the doubled over, modern poly knits that are on the standard mil spec Cockpit G-1. Historical or not depends on when you want to say this jacket is from. They are certainly comfortable and functional enough. One interesting note is that the sleeve knits are quite long. If sleeve tunneling gives you the hives, then take note. I don’t normally like the effect myself, but honestly it doesn’t look egregious on this jacket. I think the narrowed sleeves help it escape that “I’m wearing my daddy’s jacket” look.
Final notes. USN stamped in the windflap and not stenciled behind the collar. Lining is fairly coarse standard brown nylon as one might expect in any late era jacket. A few labels inside, but no escape maps, Lil’ Abner Comics, or Ovaltine advertisements.
Sorry….snob, remember?
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