Captain in the US Army Air Force

The Air Corps was restless as an Army stepchild from the start.  Its members were consigned to wear Army uniforms, but asserted themselves to the full limit of the regulations to look different from their land-bound brothers.

One popular motif was to wear a chocolate brown shirt with their khaki neckties. Some have speculated that the practice emulated Hollywood's stereotypical gangster attire, which often featured a dark shirt with light-colored tie.

If true, it would be a fitting and typically American response to German propaganda broadcasts of the day, in which Air Corps bomber crews were often referred to as "American Luftgangsters" (gangsters of the air).