[Old and Reliable]

Quite possible, if you can post some fotos we could probably verify. I would defer to Col. Bruce Day or any others that served in or closer to a Air Station or other such. It does make sense to me that a shoulder holster would be way more practical for a pilot or seated flight crew member than a hip carry style.

As you mentioned pilots, and again the great 1911 .45 pistol- one of my sisters lived right next to the big Dover USAF complex in DE- when we visited her about 10 years ago, they had the Norden bombsight on display in their museum, plus various aircraft from WW1 up to present. Her neighbor was a recently retired Senior Master Sgt. (Maintenance) and took us on a complete tour- we went into a Cargo-Master, talked with some of the crew- and I learned several new things about the Norden- which the USA was very lucky to have received from the Swedish inventor- if Goring's Luftwaffe bombers had that device- Usually the lead plane of the 4- and 4 "sticks" in a 16 plane formation- carried the Norden-

I asked why logical explanation was- the trailing planes would drop their bombs when the saw the lead plane open the bomb bay doors and drop- Norden's were expensive to make, and to prevent the Germans from getting one intact, in case of a plane crash, the first series had a muzzle port with a detonator, and the bombadier or other crew member would insert the muzzle of his sidearm, fire a round and start the detonator into its cycle- thus destroying the Norden- later I believe they used a pull ring with a timed fuse to detonate--

They also showed the ordnance the planes carried- the great M2 .50 Browning MG in different modes, and both the .38 revolvers and also the 1911 .45's carried by the pilots and crew. I even got to visit the Base armory- I knew the M2 (Ma Deuce) Browning, but as I was never stationed at a MAW Base, didn't have any "hands on" with the electrical firing devices as used on fixed wing aircraft.

The USAAC/ later USAF especially the bombing wings, lost over 75% of their crews before they reached their 25 mission limit. My wife's uncle Jack was a navigator on a B-17 on the Polesti oilfield missions, their plane was hit by flak, and the entire crew parachuted out to end up in a Luftwaffe Stalag for 13 months- Many brave men were lost to Luftwaffe ME-109's and other German aircraft and paid a great price to pave the way for D-Day and the final German surrender 11 months later. Ditto for the Pacific Theater and the air power that finally brought Japan to her knees-

Sorry if I seem to have "run with your ??" here, but Memorial Day is just around the corner, and our Country owes its freedom to our Vets!!