Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 280:
Description
Named World War II U.S. Navy Naval Aviator officer’s green service uniform belonging to Floyd Earnest Johnson (1921-2010) of Idaho, accompanied by period photographs documenting his wartime naval service. Johnson was born August 25, 1921, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and his 1942 Selective Service registration records him as a student at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho, shortly before his entry into military service. Genealogical records identify Floyd Earnest Johnson with the same birth date and record his death in 2010.
The uniform is a classic U.S. Navy Aviation Working Green officer’s coat, tailored in olive-green wool and retaining its original embroidered Naval Aviator wings over the left breast. The sleeves display a single officer rank stripe with star, consistent with the grade of Ensign, while the coat retains Navy aviation buttons, officer tailoring, and wartime construction. The interior bears an Abbott Military Tailors label associated with Corpus Christi, Texas, and Pensacola, Florida, two of the principal U.S. Navy aviation training centers of the Second World War era. The coat also retains a period ownership/issue label, though the surviving inscription is faint.
The accompanying photographs are particularly important to the provenance of the grouping. They show Johnson in wartime U.S. Navy officer dress, including the double-breasted blue officer uniform and peaked cap, and in a family photograph with servicemen from other branches. These images establish that Johnson served as a commissioned naval officer during World War II and are consistent with the rank and aviation insignia retained on the green service coat.
Johnson’s uniform reflects the wartime expansion of U.S. naval aviation, when thousands of young officers underwent flight training at major centers such as Naval Air Station Corpus Christi and Pensacola before assignment to operational or advanced training units. His qualification as a Naval Aviator, represented by the embroidered wings, indicates completion of the demanding Navy flight-training program required of commissioned pilots.
The coat is an especially desirable example because it combines named provenance, original aviation insignia, officer rank, wartime military tailoring, and period photographs of the wearer. Condition is Good to Very Good overall, with expected age and service wear, scattered small moth holes, light surface wear, and interior lining wear as photographed.
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