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USO Canteen FReeper Style....Nose Art and Pin Ups go to War....May 8,2002
FRiends of the USO Canteen FReeper Style and Snow Bunny

Posted on 05/08/2002 3:01:00 AM PDT by Snow Bunny

The practice of personalizing military aircraft with custom artwork began a few years before WWI, and continues to this day. The peak of this practice occurred during WWII, when hundreds of thousands of aircraft were adorned with such artwork, generally painted near the nose of the aircraft... hence the term, "Nose Art."

Often, flight and ground crews wore a smaller version of the artwork painted on the backs of their jackets. Of course, the quality of the artwork varied, from crude to excellent, depending on the skill of the artist.

The sultry, wonderful world of Nose Art is as varied as the individuals who dressed up and decorated the aircraft and the feelings of the men who flew them into combat. Though this variety is staggering, common themes run through them all from World War II to the end of the Korean War when the genre all but left the scene.

Humor, pathos, slogans, girls, cartoons, nicknames, hometowns, girls, patriotism, dishing it to the enemy, warriors, girls, youthful bravado, girls...these transcended nationality as both Allies and Axis pilots went to war in their individually marked chariots. Men at war separated from home, family, loved ones and a familiar way of life sought ways to personalize and escape the very harsh business surrounding them. For the most part they thought about women, represented on the sides of aircraft in the most tender of ways to the most degrading. These men spent many hours longing for the tenderness a woman could bring to their lives...and for the sexual pleasure they could provide. Whether top level commanders ordered it off the aircraft or not, the men let their feelings flow onto their machines.

As their aircraft reflected, fighter pilots of both wars were busy strafing, bombing, hunting for aerial kills and protecting friendly aircraft, airfields, supply lines and troops. But the ground crews were just as busy trying to make sure the aircraft they had generously loaned to the pilot was on the line each day and ready to bring him home. There is never enough credit to be given to these men who worked ten hours for every hour the pilot flew.

The fame and glory attached to the pilot over shadowed his faithful ground ponders, but this usually did not prevent the enlisted men and officers from becoming devoted friends. Each needed the other to make the mission successful, and a pilot's crew would experience as much pride for a victory, knowing they were behind the guns as well. As a result, nose art was often the choice of the ground crew rather than the pilot. Some units made room for both by having the pilot's art on the left side and the ground crew's on the right.

Unique among fighters, the P-38 Lightning had three noses to adorn, allowing a separate canvas for the pilot, crew chief, armorer and radio man.

Pin Ups.......


The Professor is trying to give you a more scientific explanation of how this kind of cheesecake affected the average American soldier.

World War II pinups appeared in many forms, from fighter and bomber nose art and bomber jacket art to calendars, postcards, matchbooks, and playing cards. The term pinup was coined during World War II, when soldiers would "pin up" these idealized pictures on their barracks and foxhole walls, and sailors did the same to lockers and bulkheads. There were photos of Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth and Lana Turner, and hundreds of other calendar girls and Hollywood starlets whose only claim to fleeting fame was their image seared into a GI's brain from a ragged page of YANK or Esquire magazine.

"Servicemen soon began to create their own pinup art, decorating the noses of their planes and their bomber jackets with more primitive paintings of shapely babes."


Betty Grable as she appeared in a map-reading manual. This image was used to get pilots used to reading map grids.


An early centerfold featuring Dorothy Lamour, "... the No. 1 pinup girl of the U.S. Army."

Nose art was a popular morale builder, it ranged from tame cartoon characters to some really "RACEY" women.

It must be remembered that these men were young, at war, and homesick at times. The names of mothers, girlfriends and colorful limericks were often the inspiration for this unique art form. These pictures and captions are published here for historical value, exactly as they appeared on the planes.



TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: usocanteen
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To: Snow Bunny;All
World War II Flying Jacket
by John B. Lundstrom

Submerged within the 20th Century's mass armies and enmeshed in its relentless mechanized wars, American fighting men have jealously preserved at least a measure of their individuality and independence. A definite indication of this spirit is the widespread practice of naming and personally decorating the machines taken into battle: vehicles, artillery pieces, and especially aircraft. World War II witnessed an explosion of this humorous, garish, and often irreverent art form. Although easily recognized, this type of "war art" is not always appreciated as an important facet of American folk art. Within the military it seems the combat aircrews of the Army Air Forces enjoyed the best opportunities and widest latitude to display such war art, mainly on the noses of their airplanes and on the backs of their brown leather flying jackets. Indeed, that particular garment became a coveted status symbol, indicating the wearer's membership in the nation's wartime elite.

The Milwaukee Public Museum received as a donation from the original owner a rare surviving example of a World War II 8th Air Force painted flying jacket. Between December 1944 and April 1945, Byron Taylor. Jr., of Milwaukee, an Army Air Forces staff sergeant, flew 39 combat missions over Germany. He was a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress ball turret gunner and later bombardier serving with the 381st Bombardment Group (Heavy) operating out of Ridgewell, England. He wore his painted Type A-2 leather flying jacket on all of his missions, including one on which, as sole survivor of his ten-man crew, he bailed out over western Germany and had to evade capture for several days before reaching friendly troops.

First standardized in 1931, the Type A-2 summer flying jacket was fashioned from seal-brown horsehide leather and featured a zippered front, leather collar and light brown silk lining, and brown knitted cuffs and waistband. In the Army Air Corps it became enormously popular both as a flying garment for moderate weather conditions and as casual wear. Heavy bomber crewmen like Byron Taylor liked to wear their A-2's underneath their regular cold weather flight gear as additional protection against the frigid temperatures encountered at high altitude, especially in winter. Mindful of the need for leather in a host of military products, the Army tried unsuccessfully to supplant the A-2 with a lighter pattern in 1942. Even today reproduction A-2 jackets are made in great numbers for those who are nostalgic of the look of the 1940's aviators.

Byron Taylor's A-2 jacket is marked generally in accordance with the styles prevailing at the time in the 8th Air Force. Certainly there were no set rules. Some airmen embellished their jackets more than the norm; others did not decorate their jackets at all. It all depended on personal taste and in some instances what they thought they could get away with. Almost invariably sewn on the left breast, however, was a circular unit patch. In Taylor's case it is the insignia of the 532nd Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), which with twelve bombers on strength was one of four squadrons making up the 381st Group. The vast majority of squadrons selected a particular design created either by one of their personnel or an outside agency, such as Walt Disney Studios. Once approved by the Army, the design became part of the squadron's lineage. The 532nd's insignia featured a white flying Trojan Horse sporting B-17 wings and lightning bolts issuing from its nostrils. It was approved on 4 October 1943. Most squadron emblems were likewise whimsical or comical with a great variety of flying creatures or some such other theme which had taken the fancy of squadron members. The 532nd's patch was constructed with knitted colored cloth on a leather base. Other units also had pieces of painted leather sewn together to make up the designs. Squadron patches were the most common, but some flying personnel wore their group emblems instead.

Either on the upper left or right breast of the flying jacket the owner often put his name and sometimes the wings for which he qualified, such as pilot, bombardier, navigator, aircrew, or air gunner. Taylor was content to have his nickname "By" painted on the right breast. Another common practice was to wear on one shoulder the standard Army Air Forces patch (a winged roundel containing a white star with a red ball in the center) or the patch of the particular numbered air force in which the flyer served. Officers frequently wore their rank insignia on the shoulder straps of their jackets, but the sergeants did not bother with their stripes.

It was the paintings on the backs of the flying jackets which make them so colorful and distinctive. Bomber crews especially preferred to wear a replica of the insignia which they had placed on the nose of their own aircraft. These markings comprised the name given the airplane (a short, catchy phrase) and related design which ranged from pinup girls (clad, unclad, or all variations in between), the sweet-heart of one of the crew (usually the pilot), all sorts of mythical creatures, or even a patriotic scene of some type (such as on the B-17 dubbed "General Ike"). Taylor's original crew chose the name "Dresden Doll" and represented her with a girl decked out in an abbreviated Santa Clause suit, the same design they caused to be painted on their flying jackets, but with one variation. The face of the woman painted on each flight jacket was different, a feminized caricature of that individual crewman, an unusual touch.

Taylor's artist was a flyer in another bomber in his group. More often these anonymous Michelangelo were ground crewmen, either professional artists back home or aspiring to that field. Museum sculptor Syl Sowinski served in 1944-45 as an ordnance sergeant with the 15th Air Force's 459th Bombardment Group operating out of Italy. His talents were tapped to paint aircraft noses, flying jackets, patches, and recreational clubs among other things. He utilized any type of paint he could find, from government issue to local house paints. For various tasks, the bomber crews either took him out to dinner or paid him a small sum for his work. As subject matter Sowinski, as did most other practitioners, modeled his female paintings after the pinups of famous artists such as Vargas, McPherson, and the Petty girls so popular in magazines like 'Esquire'. Indeed, it is claimed the idea of nose art on the airplanes originated early in World War II when bomber crewmen started pasting pinups in the interior of their planes. Sometimes the paintings became so risque that the base commanders had to crack down, but it was said the flyers "skirted regulation rather than their ladies." One of the biggest controversies regarding the theme of nose are and flying jackets broke out in December 1943 after the Germans captured the crew of the B-17 named "Murder Incorporated" after the famous gangster assassins of the 1930s. German newspapers widely featured photographs of a crew member's flying jacket emblazoned "Murder Inc." and falsely told their readers that a whole American bomb group was similarly named. Air Force commanders directed their groups carefully to check for any nose/jacket are which might aid German propaganda should the crew be forced down over enemy lines.

Another feature of the designs on the reverse of flying jackets was to serve as a summary of the war career of the wearer. As with Byron Taylor's jacket, little bombs were stenciled on after each mission to record the tally of combat flights. Victories over enemy aircraft were often added as well, and sometimes other symbols as well denoted various types of combat missions. Taylor's jacket shows only 32 of his 39 missions because his artist was killed on a mission over Germany, and no one took his place.

These days a surprisingly low number of painted flight jackets appear to have survived from World War II. Many enlisted personnel were required to turn in their jackets as government property when discharged after the war. Others have suffered from the passing of the years. Byron Taylor's jacket, "worn on dangerous combat missions, through thick and thin," provides a tangible reminder of the valor and sacrifice, spirit and morale of the Army Air Forces' combat aviators of World War II, as well as preserving an example of a distinctly American form of folk art.

201 posted on 05/08/2002 11:53:29 AM PDT by SAMWolf
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To: MistyCA
No problem. We just have to put our names down, lol.



202 posted on 05/08/2002 11:56:07 AM PDT by Victoria Delsoul
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To: gwmoore

...any ideas on nose art will be appreciated here

I'd think that the decorations found on some of the WWII fighters would be a little more suited to the size of a 182, and should look just right when you have the gear up.

But to get it done right, you need the attitude of the dean of the noseart masters, the guy who both painted 'em- and flew thenm in combat, with the 379th Fighter Squadron. That would be George *Dad* Rarey, [at 25, he was the *old guy* of his unit] an artiste and P47 jock extraordinaire.



He didn't make it back, and he never saw the kid who graced the nose of his fighter, as beautiful to him as any of the babes and dolls decorating the big fellas.

But see if you can't find some fitting ideas in here....




203 posted on 05/08/2002 12:04:56 PM PDT by archy
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To: Victoria Delsoul
If they painted pictures like that on Navy and Air Force jets today, homosexuals would lose all interest in joining the U.S. military. LOL!
204 posted on 05/08/2002 12:22:08 PM PDT by Alberta's Child
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To: gwmoore
My idea was to use Mrsgwmoore as the "model" for said "Vargas Girl" with the logo "Isabella Anne" (Big evil grin), but she is somewhat reluctant to the idea.

I can't imagine why. In any event, there are other possibilities besides Vargas prints....

But you'll really need a larger aircraft to get the effect right:


205 posted on 05/08/2002 12:22:45 PM PDT by archy
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To: Victoria Delsoul
So where's your pic? ;-)
206 posted on 05/08/2002 12:22:53 PM PDT by Sir Gawain
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To: Victoria Delsoul
We just have to keep these badboyz under control around here! ...Or maybe not ;)
207 posted on 05/08/2002 12:29:12 PM PDT by MistyCA
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To: Snow Bunny
You are the greatest.... Terrific post. Thanks so much.
208 posted on 05/08/2002 12:30:29 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: Alberta's Child
LOL! Good point AC!


This is my favorite. :-)

209 posted on 05/08/2002 12:33:12 PM PDT by Victoria Delsoul
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To: Sir Gawain
Hey, not me! LOL.



210 posted on 05/08/2002 12:35:13 PM PDT by Victoria Delsoul
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To: Victoria Delsoul
:-)
211 posted on 05/08/2002 12:36:05 PM PDT by Sir Gawain
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To: MistyCA
Hahahaha, I think the badboyz are sleeping right now.
212 posted on 05/08/2002 12:36:40 PM PDT by Victoria Delsoul
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To: Victoria Delsoul
I would say that is probably a good thing! :) OK....I promise...this time I am really on my way out to the garage! :)
213 posted on 05/08/2002 12:38:59 PM PDT by MistyCA
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To: SAMWolf
My favorite WWII plane.(B-17) Thanks archy

My dad was in the 8th Air Force during WWII, and flew in B17s and 24s both, and didn't care a great deal for either. His photo recon unit also got rides in A20s and British Mosquitos, which he preferred, but still wasn't all that thrilled about.

And then she came into his life, and he fell in love.

[And, yes, I still have his old jacket]


214 posted on 05/08/2002 12:40:01 PM PDT by archy
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To: MistyCA
LOLOL!! Cya later, Misty.
215 posted on 05/08/2002 12:41:38 PM PDT by Victoria Delsoul
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To: Victoria Delsoul
Gotta eat lunch some time, Man does not live on Delicious Dollz alone.
216 posted on 05/08/2002 12:55:48 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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To: archy
The P-61 Black Widow. Nice plane.
217 posted on 05/08/2002 12:57:35 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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To: gwmoore
Excellent 190 rant Greg - thanks!
218 posted on 05/08/2002 1:06:39 PM PDT by lodwick
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To: SAMWolf
LOL, you're right, Sam. :-)


This pinup is a funny one. Watch out! Lol

219 posted on 05/08/2002 1:09:51 PM PDT by Victoria Delsoul
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To: MistyCA
Back atcha!
220 posted on 05/08/2002 1:15:41 PM PDT by headsonpikes
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