Greenwood museum shows off over 80 years of style
Women have been marching through the history of the Royal Canadian Air Force since the 1940s. A new display at the Greenwood Military Aviation Museum showcases the different uniform stylings they wore – and wear today.
Museum volunteer Major (retired) Bob Johnson started assembling the display early last Fall, gathering uniform pieces, accessories and more from the GMAM’s own collection and hunting down missing elements to complete the looks, and then adding descriptors to the range of mannequins now standing in the museum’s welcome window.
“Women have played a big part in the RCAF, from all the administrative aspects of support roles, like stenographers and nurses, to women pilots transferring aircraft place to place and base to base (never in combat) during the Second World War years,” Johnson says. “We wanted to show how the uniform has changed over time, and honour women in the service.”
The Air Force blue blazer, skirt and peaked hat on the first mannequin is familiar to Johnson – and his family. His mother wore this uniform in the late 1940s as an RCAF stenographer, when she first met his father, also a member of the RCAF; five of Johnson’s uncles were also serving alongside this women’s uniform.
“And she likely was wearing it while pregnant with me!” Johnson says. In those days, pregnant women were released from their RCAF roles. Johnson says his mother still has a few artifacts from her service days at home, but no uniform; still “I picked her brain!”
The uniform series moves through the decades from there, including styled wedge hats, classy two-piece battle dress “Eisenhower” jacket and trouser sets, an early nursing uniform, the 1950s’ and 1960s’ “TWs” – tropical worsteds (“not very popular,” Johnson says, as problems with the dye lots caused its tan to fade to a mismatched pink. “They thought it would be cooler than the blue.”), the post-unification rifle green issues uniforms and, in 1986, “back in blue” Air Force pieces trimmed in the “old gold.” Johnson worked to include both officer and non-commissioner members’ versions of each uniform.
The final mannequin set features the more familiar CADPAT – now “old” itself, with the newer CADPAT coming into wider wear in the past year. There’s also a flight suit, which will feature the name tag patch of 14 Wing Greenwood’s own pilot trailblazer, Major Mary Cameron Kelly.
The uniforms also highlight a couple of other interesting things, including how sizing has changed – and that today’s women’s RCAF blue dress jacket and skirt or trousers closely resemble the uniform version of the RCAF’s earliest years.
“The goal is to educate everybody on the history of Greenwood and the history of the RCAF, and the servicewomen. We’ve already had a lot of positive feedback.”
The display will remain until Fall 2026 and is visible both during museum open hours, and when it is closed, with it’s hallway-facing placement. Once you’re inside the museum, further servicewomen – at work and in uniform – may be found included in the more fuller displays.
