[FreedomPoster]

I can well believe that a Marine Wildcat flying out of Henderson Field might well have been painted OD green. It might not have come from the factory like that, but I doubt that would have stopped the crew chief from making some field appearance modifications for better camouflage against enemy air attacks while parked.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Highly unlikely. What is plausible is that the reporter is either color blind or just plain confused. The Cavanaugh Flight Museum's FM-2 that is the subject of the article doesn't sport the same paint job that VMF-112's Wildcats did.

Cavanaugh Flight Museum's FM-2

VMF-112 Wolfpack

[MediaMole]

There is very little evidence that any Marine or Navy aircraft flying out of Henderson were painted OD green. They really weren’t in any position to do major maintenance on the aircraft during the battle of Guadalcanal. Most of the aircraft were flown until they were worn out, shot down or too badly damaged to fly again. Then the usable parts were stripped off and used to keep the remaining aircraft flying.

The reference to OD green on the restored aircraft sounds like the reporter was vamping a description of an event he didn’t witness. The only actual flying F4F Wildcat is in the early war blue-gray over white scheme. Most of the others in existence are General Motors FM2 Wildcats, which are late war aircraft.