Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 295:
Description
Named WWII U.S. Army Air Forces Officer’s Service Coat with Alaska Defense Command Patch – 1st Lt. Roy L. Suckow, Instructor Pilot, ASN 36204536 Offered is a named U.S. Army Air Forces officer’s four-pocket service coat, olive drab wool gabardine/elastique, stenciled inside the collar "SUCKOW R.L." with the accompanying serial number, identifying it to 1st Lt. Roy L. Suckow, ASN 36204536. The lot is accompanied by a photocopy of Suckow’s obituary and a period photograph, both of which travel with the coat and firmly anchor the attribution; no separate published biography or citation has been located beyond these family records, but together with the stenciled name they leave little doubt as to the officer who wore it. Born in Williamstown, Wisconsin in December 1917, Roy L. Suckow began his military service in the Horse Cavalry before transferring into the U.S. Army Air Forces, where he trained and served as an instructor pilot, reaching the rank of 1st Lieutenant. The theater-made Alaska Defense Command shoulder patch on the left sleeve – a snarling embroidered polar bear beneath a gold North Star on a dark blue field – ties his service to the remote and often overlooked Alaskan and Aleutian air theater, established in the early 1940s to guard against Japanese incursion into the North Pacific following the attacks on Dutch Harbor and the occupation of Attu and Kiska. Instructor pilots such as Suckow were essential to this isolated command, training aircrews to fly and fight in some of the harshest conditions of the war; he went on to a long postwar career in Michigan, passing away in 2008 at age 90. The coat is a standard four-pocket USAAF officer’s tunic with matching belt and gilt buttons, dressed with correct period insignia: U.S. and Air Corps lapel brass, a silver 1st Lieutenant’s bar on the shoulder strap, a silver pilot wings badge, and a small three-ribbon bar mounted above the left breast pocket. The Alaska Defense Command patch is worn on the left shoulder while the USAAF
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