Posted on 03/28/2010 6:19:49 PM PDT by Stoat
The dashing young airman who became the poster boy of the RAF during World War II has been revealed 65 year after the conflict ended.
Squadron Leader Ian Blair, now 91, was 22 years old when the famous snap was taken in 1940 after his daring flying in north Africa earned him a medal.
But he didnt realise his fame until two years later when, on a break in Bournemouth, he saw his face on a propaganda notice warning 'Careless Talk May Cost His Life'.
Flying ace: Squadron Leader Ian Blair with the classic World War II poster he unwittingly posed for at age 22
The poster, aimed at raising morale on the Home Front and spreading vital educational messages, was one of the most enduring images of the war.
Last week, a recently unearthed stash of mint condition pictures sold at auction for more than £25,000 after attracting bids from around the world.
Mr Blair, from Brentwood, Essex, who was born the year the RAF was formed, yesterday told of the moment in 1942 when he first saw the poster.
He said: I wasn't even aware that it had been produced. The photo had been taken two years earlier, in North Africa, when I was a 22-year-old corporal.
I didn't think anything more of it, and then all of a sudden, there I was, hanging on the wall of a post office.
In the famous image, Mr Blair is smiling in his airman's kit as if he hadn't a care in the world.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Good to see he is still with us.
What a dashing and inspiring figure he was in his day!
God bless you Mr. Blair, for your successful fight against the Axis and for your continued longevity!
Indeed, and hopefully he will remain with us for many years to come and inspire millions more to follow in his brave footsteps.
Had the same thing happen,...but then, enough about me...
Great post.
Thank you...I'm delighted that you've found it to be worthwhile :-)
Agreed, and fortunately for us all there are still some in our present day who have risen to the challenge.
Indeed, and my great hope is that the Darkness that seeks to envelop us all will never dissuade our modern era heroes from rising to the challenges that plague the free world.
>
Just joking but yeah, sounds like him; “Guilty as hell, free as a bird”.
At the moment, the battlefield for the soul of our Nation, as well as that of Great Britain, is at the ballot box, the voting booth, the public square and in the hearts and minds of people who all too often don't understand the nature of the enemy and sometimes don't particularly care. It's a very different kind of war, one which we will lose if we don't do our parts.
If someone can't fight for America or Great Britian in the modern Armed Forces and the War On Terror, then you can still fight against Zero's brownshirt thugs with your telephone, your computer, being careful and selective about where and how you spend your money, by educating your friends and neighbors on the truth of what's happening, and by not allowing the lies of the Left to go unchallenged.
If the Left wants to escalate the domestic culture war, a quote from Ann Coulter comes to mind....something she said after she was unsuccessfully attacked during a speech she was giving at a University. It went something like. 'If the Left wants a street fight, bring it on. We (the Right) have the men and we have the guns'.
Everyone in the world today owes your cousin and all those he served with the most profound debt of gratitude imaginable.
May God Bless him and all those who have kept us free.
Having worked for the US Postal service for a short time in years past, I am similarly amazed that there are not more 'incidents'....and I'm quite thankful that there aren't ;-)
He IS a handsome man, even today......
Kind of amusing actually. He’s one of the fittest looking and handsome looking 91 year olds I’ve seen and I’ve seen many. Good genes probably
Thanks very much for posting :-)
Thank him for me, will you?.
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