WWII Bronco A-2 Flight Jacket W535ac29191, Korean War USAF Reissue, Okinawa 1951 Hand-Painted Portrait, Size 40

A 1942 Bronco A-2 that went back to the depot, came out re-dyed and relined for the new US Air Force, and was painted 'Okinawa 1951' on the chest and a portrait of a loved one across the back.

The Type A-2, 1931 to 1943

The Type A-2 was made Standard for the Army Air Corps on 9 May 1931, after service trials that began in September 1930. Its specification, 94-3040, and its label, drawn to drawing 30-1415, described a short seal brown leather jacket with knitted wristlets and waistband, a shirt collar and two snap-flap pockets. Through the 1930s and the first years of the Second World War it became the uniform of the American airman, and it remains the most recognised flight jacket ever made.

Its wartime production was brief. In 1942 General Hap Arnold stopped further leather contracts in favour of cloth jackets, and on 27 April 1943 the A-2 was reclassified Limited Standard. Every contract placed in 1942 was, in effect, one of the last, and this jacket's contract belongs to that final season.

Bronco and Contract 29191

The label reads Type A-2, Drawing No. 30-1415, A.C. No. W535ac 29191, Property Air Force U.S. Army, Bronco Mfg. Corp., New York N.Y. Contract W535ac29191 was placed with Bronco in May 1942, and it was a substantial one, recorded at about 59,000 jackets. Bronco jackets are most often goatskin; the hide on this example has a firmer, heavier feel that may be steerhide, but we leave the leather type open rather than guess.

Bronco A-2s are respected among collectors for their clean pattern and generous cut, and a legible Bronco label with a documented contract number is the first thing a specialist looks for. Here it survives intact, sewn into a lining that tells the second half of the story.

A contract placed in May 1942 sat at the very end of the A-2's production life. Within a year the type was Limited Standard, and the factories that had cut seal brown leather for the Air Forces were turning to other work. Bronco's jackets from this order went out to the training fields and the combat groups of 1942 and 1943, and many of those that survived the war were gathered back into depots when it ended.

A Second Life in the Depot

When the war ended, surplus A-2s did not all go to the surplus stores. Many went back into military depots, were inspected, repaired and reissued, and served on into the late 1940s; they appear in photographs from the Korean War. Dark garments were thought more serviceable because they hid oil and grime, so reissued jackets were refinished with a dark brown lacquer. It was applied unevenly and in time cracked and flaked, which is why so many reissued A-2s now show the original russet or seal brown breaking through a near-black surface. The best-known reissued A-2 of all, worn by Steve McQueen in The Great Escape, was a Rough Wear contract jacket refinished in exactly this way.

This jacket carries the full set of reissue marks. The lining was replaced in olive-khaki cotton and stamped with the winged-star roundel and the words U.S. Air Force; a painted winged star sits on the left shoulder above the same words; the zip was taken out and re-sewn during the relining; and the knits were replaced. The U.S. Air Force markings date the work to after September 1947, when the Air Force became an independent service. Collectors on the specialist forums note that a re-issued, re-marked jacket is considerably rarer than an as-issued wartime A-2.

Okinawa, 1951

On the left chest, in pale blue script, someone painted Okinawa 1951. In that year the island was a front-line United States Air Force base area of the Korean War, its airfields, Kadena among them, launching bombers and supporting fighters and transports across the Far East. A jacket built in New York in 1942 for the Army Air Forces was, nine years later, being worn on a Pacific island by a man of a different service in a different war.

For a store in Japan the inscription carries its own weight. Okinawa was under American administration at the time, and the airmen stationed there in the early 1950s lived between two worlds. This jacket is one of the few objects that records that moment in paint, and it came home to Japan with its story intact.

A Face Carried from Home

Painted jackets of the Korean War era usually show aircraft, unit insignia or pin-up figures. This one carries something rarer and far more personal: a half-length portrait of a fair-haired young woman in a lace-collared blouse, painted across the back with care for likeness rather than glamour. We do not know who she was. She may have been a wife, a sweetheart or another loved one, and we have chosen not to guess beyond that.

What the portrait tells us is about the man who wore the jacket. Far from home, he chose to carry a face rather than an emblem. Among the many painted A-2s that pass through the collector market, a true portrait is uncommon, and it gives this jacket a voice that no catalogue number can.

Why Japan Collects the A-2

Japan's appreciation for the A-2 runs deeper than fashion. Its reproduction makers have studied reissued jackets as closely as wartime ones, recreating the cracked lacquer finish and the post-war lining stamps because collectors here understand that a jacket's later life is part of its history, not damage to it. A Bronco A-2 that served two air forces, two wars and an island in Japan is exactly the kind of piece that Japanese collectors value for its layers.

There is a further, quieter reason. Many of the A-2s that reached Japanese collectors in the decades after the war came through the bases themselves, worn, traded or left behind by American servicemen. A jacket painted Okinawa 1951 belongs to that history directly. It is not a reproduction of a story about Japan; it is part of one, and it stands comfortably beside the finest wartime contract jackets in any serious collection.

The Piece

The jacket shows the classic reissue surface: a dark brown depot re-dye that has cracked and worn away across the sleeves, shoulders and front to reveal the warm russet beneath, giving it a deep, tortoiseshell character. The olive-khaki relining carries the winged-star U.S. Air Force stamp, the Bronco contract label is clear at the collar, and the Talon zip, re-sewn at the relining, works well. The replacement knits are black-brown.

Okinawa 1951 is painted on the left chest in pale blue script, the Air Force winged star on the left shoulder, and the portrait across the back, a young woman with fair hair and a lace collar, painted with real tenderness. It is a wearable piece and a document at once: a wartime contract jacket, a post-war reissue and a personal memorial in a single garment.

For the collector, the appeal lies in how many chapters are legible at once: the Bronco label of 1942, the lacquer and stamps of the post-war depot, the Okinawa inscription of 1951 and the portrait that made it one man's own. Each stage has been recorded honestly in our condition notes, and none of it has been disguised or restored away.

Details

• Type: Type A-2 flight jacket, post-war USAF reissue
• Maker: Bronco Mfg. Corp., New York
• Contract / label: A.C. No. W535ac29191 (May 1942), Drawing No. 30-1415
• Era: 1942 manufacture; reissued after 1947; painted 1951
• Leather / shell: Leather type uncertain (possibly steerhide); depot dark brown re-dye over russet
• Hardware: Talon zip, re-sewn at relining
• Lining & knits: Olive-khaki cotton relining with U.S. Air Force winged-star stamp; replaced black-brown knits
• Decoration: Hand-painted 'Okinawa 1951' on chest; painted USAF winged star on left shoulder; portrait of a young woman on back
• Tagged size: 40
• Measurements: Shoulder 46 cm · Chest (pit to pit) 52 cm · Sleeve 63 cm · Length 61 cm

Condition

• Depot re-dye cracked and worn through to russet in many areas, as is typical of reissued A-2s.
• Relined in the post-war period; the zip was removed and re-sewn at that time and works well.
• Knits replaced.
• Small rust-coloured stains on the lining.
• Hide type not confirmed.
• Paint crazed with age but clearly legible; the identity of the portrait sitter is unknown.

Condition grade B on the Japanese scale; see Japanese condition ranks, explained.

Authenticity & Care

The label, contract and size tags, leather, stitching, zip and hardware, paint and insignia are examined together and documented in Japan before dispatch; anything that cannot be confirmed is stated plainly in the description. Every piece carries the Japonista authenticity guarantee. Hang on a broad wooden hanger out of direct light, and keep conditioner well away from the painted portrait and the cracked lacquer surface.

Delivery from Japan

Packed by hand in Japan and shipped insured and tracked by EMS or an equivalent express service. Import duties and taxes, where applicable, are payable on arrival. Every sale is final; please ask anything before you buy, and see our published policy.

Every figure above is taken by hand with the garment laid flat, in centimetres. Lay a shirt or jacket you already love beside them and allow a centimetre or two of margin, the quiet safeguard on a final sale. Our size guide to tops and jackets turns pit-to-pit figures into US, UK, EU and Japanese sizes, and for anything it leaves open the curator team replies within one Tokyo business day.

Collectors also search: Korean War A-2 flight jacket · USAF A-2 jacket reissue · depot redye A-2 jacket · Bronco A-2 jacket W535ac29191 · painted A-2 jacket portrait · Okinawa 1951 jacket · Kadena Air Base vintage jacket · Hap Arnold wings painted jacket · U.S. Air Force stamped A-2 lining · Great Escape A-2 reissue · Buzz Rickson's A-2 Okinawa