Part of the deal with getting this thing ready was also getting a "new" uniform for my Dad.
He turns 93 next month and he can no longer button his Army dress jacket. He's wearing it in the pics of our two previous parades in 2009 and 2010.
Since then he's added a little girth. The food at his retirement village it waaay too good.
So
We went to two Army surplus stores yesterday. Could not find a Forest Green officer's dress jacket. Actually we found two - in the same size as Dad's - 38R. Not any help as he already has one of those.
At the first store we found a post WWII jacket in khaki that looked pretty close to his but he wasn't comfortable with it as it wasn't the real thing for him. He said he'd wear it if we couldn't find anything closer. But he didn't seem happy about it.
At the second store we found another duplicate of his - same size. No good. But the guy came up with a khaki Eisenhower jacket in 42R that fit perfectly. Dad was happy with that as an Ike jacket was part of his official uniforms back then. He wore his out using it after the war. We got pants to match and we're good to go. I'm moving his insignia and he'll be official.
Both are in mint condition.
And the best part, the guy is very supportive of vets and when he met Dad and heard his story, he gave us the stuff at way cheaper than he had it tagged. He had a price tag of $125 on the coat alone but ended up giving us the coat, pants and a shirt for $100. Seriously very fair price.
Pictures to come.
