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

[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.

[Snow Bunny]

Good night dear friends. I am off to get things ready for tomorrow.

((( hug )))

[MistyCA]

I know you understand what it means since you have also had challenges. I have a rule in life that says that when things get tough it is an opportunity. Of course now and then I am not too happy with having soooo many opportunities in life! LOL! Kidding! :)

[Diver Dave]

A wise man once said, "We don't have problems, We have Opportunities."

[MistyCA]

I hadn't thought of that. I am really glad Diver Dave noticed that it could be done in Netscape.

Billie...look back on the last couple of posts. Maybe we have made some progress here in figuring out what the problem is. :)

[Mama_Bear]

Goodnight Bunny. Pleasant dreams. :-)

[MistyCA]

goodnight, Bunny! Looking forward to the thread tomorrow! You have been doing a terrific job! :)

[MistyCA]

Yes....that wise man was very wise indeed! :)

[MistyCA]

ok...I am going to go find some clothes for Clara. See you tomorrow! Thanks again, Tonk! And thank, Dave! :)

[Mama_Bear]

Goodnight Misty, I am heading out of here too. Goodnight all.

[connectthedots]

It is so wonderful to have so many wonderful friends at FR, many of whom I have never met in person. Things have been a struggle with the legal stuff over the past six months, but I now have the US District Court judge in a real bind. If he does not enter a summary judgment in my favor, I will have enough evidence to name him as an additional defendant. I thank God that we have an honorable President, U.S. Attorney General and especially a most honorable gentleman as the Chief of the DOJ Criminal Division, Michael Chertoff. I anticipate having a good deal of my case resolved within the next 2-3 months; and then people will start going to jail or be prosecuted for their role in government corruption.

[Snow Bunny]

NEW THREAD

[Snow Bunny]

I am so glad to hear how it is going. I think of you often and always pray it will work out.God bless you my friend.You have worked so hard to get this far.

[SAMWolf]

This One?

[Jen]

Are you using MSPaint? If so, that's the problem. It can't do animations. Get Paint Shop Pro, which can.

[SAMWolf]

I like that one too, but it's RJayneJ's Essay of the Week logo.

[Mama_Bear]

Are you using MSPaint? If so, that's the problem.

No, I've never used MSPaint. I have made a couple of simple animations using Adobe PhotoShop to create each individual image frame, and a program called "GIF Movie Gear" to 'smoosh' them all together into a single animated image. In the case with Misty's image last night, I couldn't even save it on my hard drive ... well, I could save it, but only as a single frame image (as a bitmap).

I've never run into this before. Even though "properties" said it was a .gif, it wouldn't save as a gif. I guess Snow Bunny was having the same problem. Anyway, Diver Dave told us to try saving it using Netscape. That worked. So, I'm beginning to think it has something to do with the version of IE that Bunny and I are using. Tonk was able to save it using IE, but maybe he has a newer version. I don't know, it's very weird that this is the first time I have ever come up against this problem.

Billie, weren't you also having a problem with this a couple days ago? You know a lot more about these things than I do, do you know why this is happening?

Anyway, good morning to you all. I hope it is a beautiful day in your world. :-)

[Jen]

Uh, never mind... ;-)

[Mama_Bear]

Uh, never mind... ;-)

LOL! Well, thank you for your suggestion. :-)

Billie and I have been discussing this too and we think it must have something to do with the version of IE we are using. Both she and I are using 5.5. I am going to upgrade to 6.0 and see if that solves the problem.

The curious thing is that it seems to only be Misty's graphics that we can't save. I guess SAMWolf has also had the same problem with her graphics. I can only think that it has something to do with "myplanet.com" where the graphic is located. I love a mystery. I will get to the bottom of this. LOL!

[Jen]

Please fill me in after you do your detective work. hahaha

[Mama_Bear]

Okie dokie, will do.