Description
Physical description
Peaked service dress, cap having a dark blue fabric top with open weave blue band. The cap has a rigid peak that is faced with black fabric and decorated with lightning bolts and clouds, embroidered in silver wire. To the front is fitted an oxidised silver officer's pattern eagle badge and an adjustable black leather chinstrap is secured over the peak by matching crested USAF pattern buttons.
History note
Donals S Lopez (1923 – 2008) had already learned to fly whilst at college, and volunteered to join the Army Air Force in early 1942. After graduating and earning his Pilot's wing badge, Second Lieutenant Lopez saw early combat in China with the 23rd Fighter Group, later shooting down five Japanese fighters (four in a P-40, and one in a P-51). Returning to the United States in 1945, he flew as a test pilot, mainly in early jet fighters, at Eglin Field (Florida).
Donald S. Lopez, Sr. (July 15, 1923 – March 3, 2008) was a U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force fighter and test pilot and until his death the deputy director of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. In 1948 he married Glindel Barron, sister of Florida State Senator Dempsey Barron. Following this assignment he served two tours in the Pentagon, earned a B.S. and M.S. in aeronautical engineering, and was an associate professor of thermodynamics at the United States Air Force Academy.
Lopez retired from the USAF in 1964 and spent eight years in engineering before joining the staff of the National Air and Space Museum. His publications include two personal memoirs: 'Into the Teeth of the Tiger' (Smithsonian, 1997, ISBN 1-56098-752-9), and 'Fighter Pilot's Heaven': Flight Testing the Early Jets (Smithsonian, 2001, ISBN 1-56098-916-5).
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