The U. S. Army’s elite paratroopers of WWII were particularly creative when it came to enhancing their appearance while wearing working or dress uniforms; anything that looked cool and made them appear more distinctive and stand out as paratroopers was their objective in altering their uniforms. Among various uniform enhancements adopted by the paratroopers was the wearing of camouflage neck scarves fabricated from damaged parachute canopies – the scarves were never an issue item of clothing. 

The paratroopers made their parachute jumps using the T-5 parachute, which featured a reserve chest pack that housed a white parachute canopy and a main back pack that typically contained a camouflaged parachute canopy.  Since the main chute was the primary chute to be deployed when performing a combat jump, logic dictated that the canopy be made of camouflaged nylon parachute fabric to better conceal the deployed parachute canopy. These camouflaged scarves were typically made rather hastily and simply cut with a knife from canopies that were no longer serviceable or found in combat areas after a drop, hence the edges were not bound or sewn and were left unfinished, unlike a proper issue scarf. 

The practice of making and wearing the camouflaged neck scarves by the paratroopers was fairly wide spread and can be seen in photos while they were wearing their combat uniforms, class B uniforms or with the coveted USAAF A-2 jackets.  Some USAAF C-47 aircrew of Troop Carrier Command responsible for delivering the paratroopers to their final destinations also wore the camouflaged scarves with their flying jackets, and immediately following the Normandy parachute drops in June 6, 1944, many non-parachute soldiers on the ground, such as U. S. Army Rangers, regular line infantrymen, artillerymen, engineers, etc.,  found ample camouflage canopies all over the countryside and adopted the wearing of scarves or camouflaged their helmets with covers fabricated from the discarded canopies.

The scarves we offer are all extremely limited offerings, being fabricated exactly as the original examples were – cut from a WWII-marked nylon camouflage parachute canopies and left with edges unfinished, just as most original scarves of this type were cut.  Our scarves are always fully GUARANTEED to be WWII vintage and made from canopies that must display WWII dates of manufacture and or "AN" stamps on each panel.  "AN" stampings reflect joint approval for Army-Navy use and it was directed that these stampings appear on every panel of a canopy produced during the WWII years. If you want to know for certain your scarf is a genuine wartime example, this may be your last your chance.  This is the perfect companion item for our any of our WWII U. S Army or AAF jackets.  You are buying a true piece of WWII history, NOT a copy - supplies are very limited, so get your scarf before they are gone forever!