Established in 1942, the 8th Air Force was one of the chief units participating in the American strategic daylight bombing campaign, with a unit strength of 200,000 men at their peak. After the surrender of Germany, they relocated to the Pacific in anticipation of the invasion of the Japanese Home Islands, but Japan surrendered before combat operations could commence. Following World War II, the 8th became a component of the United States Air Force, joining the Strategic Air Command and becoming a primary operator of the B-52 Stratofortress in both the strategic nuclear bombardment role and also for conventional bombing in Vietnam and the Gulf War. The jacket is brown leather construction with a brown cloth liner, bearing an faint Army Air Force label on the interior, the painted 8th Air Force logo on the left shoulder, and a multicolored postwar applied painting on the back of a bee standing on a cloud wearing an Air Force hat, a pair of boots with a dagger tucked into one , and a pair of revolvers, with "BOISE/BEE" marked around it. Boise Bee was the P-51 Mustang of Duane Willard Beeson, a native of Boise, Idaho who achieved 17 aerial kills, spending part of his wartime service with the Canadian RAF (they didn’t require a college education) before joining the 8th. Beeson is one of only 10 pilots to become an "Ace" in more than one aircraft, scoring 12 in a P-47 Thunderbolt and another 5 in the Mustang. A restored Mustang bearing Beeson's markings is still flying as of this writing. The pants are World War II German-made "channel" pants, tan cloth construction with plastic zippers and no size markings. From the Putnam Green Collection.

Good. The cloth sections show minor moth damage and wear, with some cracking and scuffs on the leather. The painted sections (possible post-WWII) remain solid, with minimal flaking. The pants are good.