ORIGINAL WWII USAAF AVIATION PILOT CADET VISOR CAP

Beautiful condition Cadet visor cap, USAAF cap all original to cap inc insignia, no moth damage.

This is a serge wool aviation cadet service cap of the period of 1943. Since the spring of 1941, aviation cadet caps had been procured under the same specifications as army officer’s caps.  These caps were made in a dark shade wool elastic material and they were only distinguishable from one another by the insignia they carried. Then in the summer of 1942, the aviation cadet cap was changed to olive drab serge wool material the same as the regular enlisted man’s cap. The serge wool aviation cadet cap consisted of a standard service cap with a detachable blue braided band added around the frame and the distinctive aviation cadet insignia added to the front.

In 1942 conservation measures affected some of the traditional materials used in the construction of the wool serge cap, but the general appearance remained the same. Eventually, in the spring of 1944, the Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot issued a new specification (PQD 421) that was also shared by both the enlisted man’s and aviation cadet caps.