WWII veteran reunited with Air Force uniform jacket years later

By: 
Steve Chapman

 Kenny Gaines shows off his uniform jacket from WWII. (Photo by Steve Chapman)

A World War II veteran living at the Missouri State Veterans Home in Mt. Vernon was recently reunited with the uniform jacket he wore during his time in the service. Kenny Gaines, 95, had his jacket restored to him by local resident Matt Oehlschlager on July 31.
Gaines was drafted into the United States Army in 1943 at the age of 18. However, instead of being sent into the infantry, he was chosen to go into the United States Army Air Corps, where he was trained as a radioman and a gunner. However, he ended up becoming a pilot.
Gaines went to flight school in Norfolk, Texas, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Air Force. He expected to go on to be trained to fly C-47 Skytrain. However, he was sent to Whiteman Air Force Base near Warrensburg, where he was trained to fly a C-46 Commando. He went on to serve in South Pacific Theater.
At the time Gaines was commissioned, the Army Air Force (AAF) was under the command of General Henry Arnold. It was because Arnold wanted to make the officers in the AAF stand out that Gaines was provided with his uniform jacket, which at the time was called a “blouse.”
“When I graduated from flight school in Texas in November of 1944, General Arnold was still a little bit hepped up about his Air Force,” Gaines said, “and what he did was, he designated enough money, $300, for the officers in the Air Force to buy tailored uniforms. He wanted them to look better than the regular Army.”
Gaines said the material used to make his jacket was of a higher quality than the average military uniform.
“This jacket that I had was tailor-made out of the best material that money could buy,” he said. “That made the Air Force look better than the regular Army people.”
Some years after the war, Gaines loaned his uniform jacket to his brother-in-law, who earned a commission in the United States Army but had no money to purchase a uniform. His brother-in-law wore the jacket during his 20- year career in the Army and then returned it to Gaines after retiring. Gaines joked that his jacket “has been around a whole lot more than me” as it was used not only during WWII, but also during the Korean and Vietnam wars.
Gaines moved to Mt. Vernon in 1960, where he bought a farm, which he kept while working for local businesses. He sold a part of his farm, including the farm house and barn in 1972, but bought it back in 2002.
Gaines said the farm house was built in 1935, when most people did not have a lot of clothing, so there were no closets in it. When Gaines and his wife moved back into the house in 2002, they found they had little space to store their clothing, so his wife had him put the clothes they weren’t using in a sealed grain bin in the barn. He built two racks out of PVC pipe and hung the clothes, including his uniform jacket, in the bin, covered them with quilts and blankets, and then forgot about them.
Gaines remembered the jacket when Oehlschlager came to visit him recently at the Veterans Home, and asked Oehlschlager if he would see if he could find his old jacket.
“Well, he went home and came back in 30 minutes with that jacket,” Gaines said.
Gaines expected his jacket to be “moth-eaten and mouse-eaten with dirt dauber nests in it and everything else.” He was surprised to see his jacket was in much better shape than he expected.
“It was in perfect condition,” he said. “There wasn’t even a moth-hole in it. I think, since it was tailor-made, that they had put something in the material to repel moths.”
Gaines said that now that he has his jacket back, he will pass it on down to his family.
Gaines has several other stories about his experiences in the war, which he is currently writing down. He plans to publish these memoirs in a book in the near future.

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Lawrence County Record

312 S. Hickory St.
Mt. Vernon, MO, 65712
www.lawrencecountyrecord.com

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