VCS-7 T-Shirt

This T-shirt commemorates the VCS-7 onboard the Battleship Texas. Before the invasion of Normandy, the Naval Gunfire Spotters aboard TEXAS, typically equipped with the OS2U Kingfisher, were sent to England to operate under the newly formed VCS-7 Squadron. Men from the United States Army Air Force trained these pilots to fly the Spitfire V-B for target spotting while the vessel operated off the coast of Normandy, France.

Naval Aviators from the USS TEXAS, Lieutenant (jg) J.O. Robinson and Ensign B. Carmichael, flew nineteen sorties totaling just over twenty-six hours in June of 1944. Both Carmichael and Robinson were photographed in front of plane 4J, which features the emblem of the Royal Air Force along with the hastily painted invasion stripes.