Rank and Patches on Military Jackets - Might I Offend a Veteran?

[Peacoat]

1st of all, I'm not a veteran and would never claim to be.

Back in the early 70's I found a Marine dress topcoat in a thrift store that fit me like a glove. I removed Sergeant chevrons from the sleeves.

The first time I wore it I got two Semper Fi greetings that I was very uncomfortable with....so I replaced the Globe and Anchor buttons and tried.it again. A guy called me "Sarge" because of the impression left on the now bare sleeves, where the chevrons had been.

Nope, I'm not doing this.
That was the last time I wore it.

I understand and agree with your decision.

 

[p51]

It's just a jacket. I have several A2's all patched up that I'll sometimes wear out. In over 30 years of doing so, nobody has EVER said anything other than to say how cool it looks or to ask where I got it. This one got signed by Robert Morgan about a year before he passed and HE had no issues with my wearing it:
91st BG A2 jacket by Lee Bishop, on Flickr
One thing I recently did when I found a vendor who was making nametapes in the Star Wars "language," which just swapped characters for English, was to buy some of his patches and essentially make a Star Wars imperial pilot vet item out of a jacket I already had around. I even had the nametape say, "Veteran" instead of my last name, just in case I ever decided to sell it later on. There's no English writing on it anywhere, and I got the rank patch to match my real-life Army rank. Had he made imperial walker unit patches, I probably would have gone that route, but oh well:

Keith R. Hudson, 71, was sentenced to six months in jail and six months of home confinement after falsely claiming to be a Vietnam veteran and receiving nearly $200,000 in benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Meanwhile, my Dad who just passed away was almost totally deaf. He'd worked on F-86s in the USAF in the 50s, never with any hearing protection and the VA told him nothing was service related.
And I had a stack of papers in my medical records on repetitive stress fractures and my shins some ache to this day if I walk long distances. VA turned me down fully as well.
I have NEVER understood how some people get paid for things they have no records for and then this stuff happens to people like my Dad and I very often, who could provide proof!

 

[EngProf]

It's just a jacket. I have several A2's all patched up that I'll sometimes wear out. In over 30 years of doing so, nobody has EVER said anything other than to say how cool it looks or to ask where I got it. This one got signed by Robert Morgan about a year before he passed and HE had no issues with my wearing it:
91st BG A2 jacket by Lee Bishop, on Flickr
One thing I recently did when I found a vendor who was making nametapes in the Star Wars "language," which just swapped characters for English, was to buy some of his patches and essentially make a Star Wars imperial pilot vet item out of a jacket I already had around. I even had the nametape say, "Veteran" instead of my last name, just in case I ever decided to sell it later on. There's no English writing on it anywhere, and I got the rank patch to match my real-life Army rank. Had he made imperial walker unit patches, I probably would have gone that route, but oh well:
View attachment 543957
View attachment 543958

Meanwhile, my Dad who just passed away was almost totally deaf. He'd worked on F-86s in the USAF in the 50s, never with any hearing protection and the VA told him nothing was service related.
And I had a stack of papers in my medical records on repetitive stress fractures and my shins some ache to this day if I walk long distances. VA turned me down fully as well.
I have NEVER understood how some people get paid for things they have no records for and then this stuff happens to people like my Dad and I very often, who could provide proof!

I like the Star Wars jacket, but I'll bet 99% of the people who see it will think it's Russian surplus.