“I was just doing what I had to do,” Baron said in the statement. “Making sure everyone was seated and safe. My blouse had fallen from where I had hung it up and as I focused on my chores a mother picked it up and spread it over her child to help keep it warm. It was heartwarming to see.

Legend

Airman 1st Class Nicholas Baron, loadmaster with the 305th Air Mobility Wing, officially donates his blouse and delivers it to Stuart Lockhart, 305th Air Mobility Wing historian, at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ, Oct. 12 2021. The blouse was the most requested item of documentation for Operation Allies Refuge. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sergeant Shay Stuart)

The Air Mobility Command History Office contacted 305th Air Mobility Wing historian Stuart Lockhart to ask if Baron would be willing to donate his blouse to the museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

“Even before the operation was over, curators at the National Museum were looking for artifacts to document Operation Allies Refuge,” Lockhart said. “One item they mentioned in particular that they wanted, was (the baron’s) blouse.”

Questions were sent to a museum spokesperson on Wednesday.

The US Air Force National Museum, located in Wright-Patterson, is the largest and oldest military aviation museum in the world. With free admission and parking, the museum displays more than 350 aerospace vehicles and missiles and thousands of artifacts amid more than 19 acres of indoor exhibit space.