Wedding dress made from Second World War parachute on display at museum

A wedding dress made from a Second World War parachute with quite a story behind it is now on display at a museum on Long Island. (WABC via CNN Newsource)

A wedding dress made from a Second World War parachute with quite a story behind it is now on display at a museum on Long Island.

The rare Second World War era dress, stitched from the fabric of a pilot’s parachute, can be seen until Sunday at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City.

When Air Corps Lieutenant George Braet returned home from the war, he brought the parachute with him.

It was never deployed, but he believed it stopped a bullet from injuring him.

When he tied the knot with his bride, Evelyn, in 1945, she had her dress made from that life-saving parachute.

The couple was married for more than 60 years before their deaths.

“It represents their love. It represents my mother’s ingenuity, my mother’s creativity; silk was so rare. And at the time of the pictures of it was white, white silk. Just absolutely gorgeous in her wedding pictures,” their daughter Kate Braet of Bay Shore said.

First Lieutenant Braet had 53 missions piloting a B17 bomber.

On one of those missions in February of 1944, he came under enemy attack in Hitler’s Europe.

Flak pierced his plane, but his attached parachute stopped the flying metal from hitting him, saving his life.

“Their legacy continued because of that piece of silk,” Braet said.

They raised 5 children across the U.S., including in Hauppauge.

“They encountered obstacles that we really can’t imagine and they put on a good face and they always saw the silver lining and they always saw the brighter side and kind of kept things moving,” their grandson Ben Steelman said.

So why is the parachute dress displayed at the Cradle of Aviation Museum?

“The museum is all about stories and it’s all about people. We do have 75 planes and spacecraft, but it’s more important about the people that flew it,” President of the museum, Andrew Parton, said.

The dress is a reminder that even in the aftermath of war, love finds a way.

If you want to see the reminder for yourself, it’ll be on display until February 22nd.

Museum curators say they plan to showcase it again in the future.