The Air Officer’s Guide

But it's Historical!, Swedish Death Cleaning 12 comments

air force officer's guide

The Air Officer’s Guide
The Military Service Publishing Co.
1957

Another Swedish Death Cleaning Find

My dad was a ROTC during college and grad school, around 1958 to 1964 or so. This was one of those items from my mom that was in a pile of other stuff. Why it is in my personal library is a mystery. Part of this is that my mother can’t abide throwing things out. I have a feeling there is “Mary is a librarian, she would probably want this” assumption. I’m not so sure my sisters have similar random books in their library.

In all fairness, this is kind of interesting. I was obviously too young when my dad was serving, so I don’t have much first hand knowledge of military family life. My mom loved the time when my dad served. They were posted in California for about 4 years. No Midwestern winter awfulness.

Other than the book nerds among us, I have no idea if it has any value beyond that.  As a library book, it is a weeder. It might have a place in a specialty collection. Military folks, I would love to hear from you. If you serve near a base or installation, does your public library collect military items? Please share!

Mary

introduction

history

uniforms

evaluation

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12 comments

  1. Off the book goes, into the wild blue yonder…

    You could probably find a taker for this on eBay or such, and I’m sure it’s in the deep stacks at the Academy, but it sure doesn’t need to be in your house.

    I love the ladies’ uniforms. They could actually work and walk in them! And the skirt has POCKETS! Must have been designed by an Airwoman. NGL, I’d wear that skirt.

  2. That cover illustration, when I saw it scaled down on ALB homepage, made me think that the uniformed Officer was preparing to fly a paper airplane to join the fleet of aircraft above the field.

  5. These kinds of specialty books are often very hard to get a hold of when one needs them for research, whether for writing fiction or nonfiction or producing illustrations. I second the notion of selling it or finding a special library for it. (When my father, an aerodynamics engineer, passed away, for example, the research library of an aviation company was absolutely thrilled when I sent them a bibliography of all the contents of his personal aviation-history and old engineering books; they combed through it and ended up taking in about two-thirds of his collection. The rest were gratefully received by local aeronautically inclined people on a free giving site.)

    1. It sounds like your father had judgement and taste in his professional selections. I’m curious how you (or he?) selected the company to inquire to.

  6. I would see if there’s any sort of military museum near you and send it to them. We have a Heros Hall here in Costa Mesa and I think they’re hurting for displays most of the time. They might not take it because of Covid but they might, who knows. Can’t hurt to try.

  7. The uniform photos remind me of pictures in old Scouting handbooks (which I love to collect). You may find someone willing to buy this… but I wouldn’t pay $60 for it.

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