In brief, we've been going through some very old family photos with the intent of cataloguing and digitizing them, one of which was a photo of my grandfather in his uniform.
I noticed something I'd never noticed before: he has US (Army Airforce(?)) wings on his left breast, and RAF wings on his right. The US wings make sense - he was a cargo/transport pilot for the US during WWII. But, the RAF wings are confusing, and thus far my fairly pointed google queries haven't turned up theories. Does anyone here have an idea? Some background info on my grandfather follows.
Details I know for sure:
Speculated but unconfirmed details:
And if this is too simple for AH, I guess I'll come back during SASQ on Wednesday. Thanks either way!
So, as other commenters have observed, the wearing of both American and British wings was authorised for pilots in the three Eagle Squadrons after they were transferred from the RAF to the USAAF (to become the 334th, 335th and 336th Fighter Squadrons of the Eighth Air Force) in 1942. But given what you know about your grandfather (no evidence of him travelling to Europe to volunteer, and the fact that he wasn't a fighter pilot), it's very unlikely for that to be the explanation for the double wings.
I think the most likely explanation is that he trained at one of the British Flying Training Schools. Under the Lend-Lease Act, the United States hosted flight training for thousands of British aircrew. In some cases, this training was overseen directly by the USAAF, but the seven BFTS installations were under RAF command (though the instructors were mostly American civilians.) Most BTFS cohorts included a proportion — usually not more than 20% or so, from what I can find — of American cadets.
There are a handful of books about the BFTS programme, mostly oral histories/memoirs of cadets who trained there. Flipping through RAF Wings Over Florida: Memories of World War II British Air Cadets, an oral history of 5BTFS in Clewiston, Florida, I spotted a couple of passing references to dual wings.
This is from the account of an American cadet, Bill Slade, who's described as being "assigned to the Air Transport Command of the U.S. Army Air Corps after he won both Air Corps and RAF pilot wings at Clewiston":
At graduation there were eleven of the eighty-three British cadets who had washed out. All sixteen of the U.S. cadets did get dual wings, but in all fairness, they had considerably more flying experience than did the British cadets. [...]
The avenue followed by U.S. cadets after graduation was generally the Air Transport Command of the U.S. Army Air Corps. We were sent to Billy Mitchell Field in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for staging to the various air transport command squadrons.
Elsewhere in the book, and similarly parenthetical:
Most of the U.S. cadets who won their wings (both American and RAF) at 5BTFS went on to multiengine training and assignment to the Air Transport Command.
Those passing mentions seem to imply that the American graduates of BTFS were awarded RAF wings as an honorific. I've seen a handful of photos while googling of RAF aircrew wearing USAAF wings as well.
The specific references to the US Army Air Corps (the predecessor and a component part of the broader US Army Air Forces) also mesh with the details you've given about your grandfather: he's wearing the Prop and Wings device on his lapels, which marks him out as being commissioned in the Air Corps, and if he was a C-47 pilot who spent time flying the hump he was very likely assigned to Air Transport Command.
I'd suggest a couple of next steps to find out more:
Hope that helps, and that you're able to find out more!
It could be that he was attached to an RAF squadron. Do you know what unit he belonged to?
Hello there! As your question is related to looking for identification/information regarding military personnel, our Guide on Military Identification may be of use to you. It provides a number of different resources, including how to request service records from a number of national agencies around the world, as well as graphical aids to assist in deciphering rank, unit, and other forms of badges or insignia. While the users here may still be able to lend you more assistance, hopefully this will provide a good place to start!
The Eagle Squadron has exactly those, but you said he didn't go and volunteer to join the RAF, did he join the Squadron after the US joined the war, or was he just a US pilot for the entire duration? If he never joined or had anything to do with the RAF I have no idea
