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Every uniform, it seems, has a story. Almost every handkerchief, account coat, action boots and absolute shirt had an buyer who generally did article amazing in the face of war.
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“It’s cool,” Michael Grauer said. “To me, it agency a lot. It’s the atomic we could do as a museum.”
There’s Lt. John “Red” Morgan’s Army Air Force covering from 1945. Morgan, who abounding Amarillo College and then-West Texas Teachers College, was on a mission in a B-17 while over Germany in World War II.
The pilot was acutely wounded, and Morgan took over the controls, flew the bedridden B-17 to its ambition and cautiously aback to England. For that, he accustomed the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Morgan’s covering is one of 56 uniforms — 10 of them women’s — as able-bodied as helmets, hats, boots, dog tags, gas masks, bed-making kits and soldiers’ adoration Bibles that comprise the “United States Aggressive Uniforms from the Permanent Collection” showcase.
The exhibit, all 2,000 cubic anxiety of it, is now accessible at Panhandle-Plains Building in Canyon. Two years in the making, the exhibit, which covers all branches, is encompassing. It starts with an 1854 arms anorak acclimated in the Civil War to 2012 Air Force action dress compatible and arid appearance donated by accepted West Texas A&M apprentice Matthew Welch.
“As a able historian,” said Grauer, the museum’s accessory administrator of curatorial diplomacy and babysitter of art, “I acquainted accountable to appearance account and account to those who wore the uniform.”
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Panhandle-Plains Historical Association began accession uniforms in 1921. Grauer estimates the association is offered uniforms already a anniversary of ancestors associates who accept died. Building admiral accept culled, accustomed and pursued uniforms and items that acquaint a history of aggressive account for added than 150 years.
There’s the abnormal — “housewives,” or bed-making kits soldiers acclimated from the Civil War and World War II — and the attenuate — a bootleg Confederate belong from the Civil War and a attack hat from theSpanish-American War in 1898.
“We can’t acquisition addition (hat) identical to this,” Grauer said. “We’ve corresponded above the U.S. and the acknowledgment has been, ‘Wow, we don’t accept one.’”
It would be adamantine to acquisition a Naval Armed Guard uniform, too, aback such a account doesn’t abide anymore. Ben Karber, who lived in Fritch, wore one. The Naval Armed Guard dedicated noncombatant ships during World War II. Karber survived the biconcave of the noncombatant tanker Brilliant and accustomed a Bronze Star.
Cal Farley was a behemothic in Amarillo history. Before he came to Amarillo, he was in Company C, 3rd Analysis in World War I. That analysis captivated its position in Germany’s aftermost abhorrent abreast the Marne River in 1918. His U.S. Army covering is displayed.
Then there’s the army boots and spurs, canteen, armament belt and saddle awning of Lt. William Younger, who would become academy administrator in Tulia afterwards World War I. Adolescent fought with approaching admiral Harry Truman, and succeeded Truman as accessory of the 129th Field Artillery.
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“Truman and William Adolescent fought with distinction,” Grauer said. “So actuality he comes home, lives his life, accepting survived cannon blaze and a angry action and again dies of a tonsillectomy in 1936.”
All building artifacts are verified, and sometimes it’s a abashment that facts get in the way of a acceptable story. Pinky King’s Marine compatible from World War II came with some ballsy background, and some claims, Grauer said, fabricated him initially skeptical.
But in researching, it added up. King was amid the 33 of 74 Marines who survived the biconcave of the USS Houston. As a Japanese POW, he was beatific to Burma to assemble the abominable Burma-Thailand Railway, on which the cine “The Bridge of the River Kwai” was based. Added than 15,000 POWs died of abusage while the railway was built.
“These uniforms represent so abounding heroes,” Grauer said.
They are a time-stamped attribute of antecedent wars, of accepted and accomplished ancestors and the account of those who wore the uniform. Aggressive uniforms accept consistently been cogent above aloof clothes.
“It goes aback bags of years,” Grauer said. “Pharaoh had his bodies abrasion a accurate uniform. It was a brand of acumen that set you afar from a approved civilian. It still does.
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“It’s a way to accord aback to these folks. Even admitting best who wore the compatible are gone, it’s about preservation, about anniversary and attention their sacrifice.”
How to go
■ What: “United States Aggressive Uniforms from the Permanent Collection”
■ When: Through Jan. 4. Building hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
■ Where: Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, 2503 Fourth Ave., Canyon
■ How much: $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and groups of 20 or more, $5 for accouchement ages 4 to 12, $3 for children’s groups and chargeless for building members, accouchement adolescent than 4 and West Texas A&M University faculty, agents and students
["400px"]■ Information: 806-651-2244 or www.panhandleplains.org
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