Parker 51 At The National Museum Of The Air Force

[Arstook]

Just stumbled on this interesting catalog item in the National Museum of the Air Force. It is a Parker 51 that was raffled off at the PX for servicemen in the China-Burma-India theater.

 

 

 

 

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/article/198116/parker-51-fountain-pen/

[mitto]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[CS388]

Apposite colour for an air force uniform.

 

I didn't used to like the grey 51's, but the colour is growing on me.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[Aelie]

I must admit that when I use my Parker 51 (soon to be 2 Parker 51s) my imagination sometimes runs wild and I wonder about what stories my pen could tell if it could speak. Thanks for sharing!

[mitto]

I can't hear the stories that my P51s keep telling me. Too much noise as all of the 500 of them tend to speak at the same time. And the stories they tell get all mixed up.

Edited December 13, 2017 by mitto

[Arstook]

Oh the secrets they've inked and the places they've come from :-)

[tamiya]

I can't hear the stories that my P51s keep telling me. Too much noice as all of the 500 of them tend to speak at the same time. And the stories they tell get all mixed up.

What do you expect when you build frankenpens from parts off several different pens!

[mitto]

What do you expect when you build frankenpens from parts off several different pens!

 

Parts of P51s to build P51s. That is what the Parker factories did. I am not aware if parts of 'several different pens' can be put in 51s to build frankenpens.

 

But you are correct the stories get mixed up when parts from different story telling P51s are put together to build P51s. :)

Edited December 12, 2017 by mitto

[inkstainedruth]

Fascinating. The pen looks like a Navy Grey 51 Vac -- somewhat ironic, since the AF was originally an offshoot of the Army, not the Navy (before becoming its own branch of the US military).

Makes me think of the time several years ago when I was on the West Coast for a family wedding, and my brother-in-law's wife mentioned that since so many people had made it out to the Seattle area, it would be nice to have some sort of family get-together; we sort of uniformly agreed on the the Museum of Flight (my brother-in-law works for Boeing, and I think maybe got discounts on the tickets). And in the World War II gallery, there's a P51 Mustang right at the bottom of the stairs from the WWI gallery. So I had my husband take pictures of me, standing in front of the plane, and holding my Plum 51 Aero (one of the pens I'd brought with me on the trip), and those photos are now part of my screensaver file (I'm not going to post them here because the photos aren't actually all that good -- they're a little blurry ).

Thanks for posting the link.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[MightyEighth]

Fascinating. The pen looks like a Navy Grey 51 Vac -- somewhat ironic, since the AF was originally an offshoot of the Army, not the Navy (before becoming its own branch of the US military).

 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Army Air Corps Song (Robert MacArthur Crawford, 1938)

Off we go into the wild blue yonder

Climbing high into the sun;

Here they come zooming to meet our thunder,

At'em boys, giv'er the gun!

Down we dive spouting our flames from under,

Off with one hell-uv-a roar!

We live in fame or go down in flame,

Nothing'll stop the Army Air Corps!

The Army Air Corps became the Army Air Force(s) in June 1941, then broke off as separate service in 1947 as the U.S. Air Force. And the song lyrics were changed accordingly.

Keep 'em Flying!

- Marc

[J English Smith]

That looks like a very well loved and well used 51. Thanks for posting the link.

[pajaro]

I bought my first 51 at the Air Force BX at the Lackland AFB Annex, Officer Training School in 1970. It's in my shirt pocket now. It saw the inside of Titan II missile sites, silo and control center. It flew on planes that looked like they were going slower than ground traffic. It served me through an IT career. What a pen!

[mitto]

Being junior to you, pajaro, and so many others, over here, I got my first 51 quite late. In 1991. Yet while using a bunch of P45s, a P75 flighter and a few Sheaffer Imperials, I knew about the reputation of the 51 but wouldn't know where to find one. Eversince, all the 51s that I collected are still with me. Like you, pajaro, my first 51 - a 1958 forest green with extra broad nib - always remain in my shirt pocket.

[BT_Summers]

Thanks for posting this story, my grandfather was in Burma during the War although he never spoke of the trauma that he went through, not sure that a pen would have helped too much,

 

There is something about a pen that has seen a lot of life, unthinkable to restore it to new condition.

[Hanamizu]

There is a grey Parker "51" in a museum in Costa Rica. I believe it was used to sign their Constitution in 1949. Among other things the Constitution abolished the Costa Rican military.