jeff & Maria
Active member
I found an old A2 Flight jacket at an estate sale last summer like my dad wore during WW II. My dad was a gunner in a B-25 in the Marine Air Corp and since he passed away when I was 12 I never found out much about his plane, or if it had any nose art. As a former graphic artist I always appreciated the art that was done on the planes. I found a great book titled " Classic Vintage Nose Art" by Gary Valant, great photos and information. I opted to paint one of the designs on my jacket, now it looks complete! My pop is seated at the bottom all the way on the right in the photo with his flight crew. They were in the Pacific. I remember him telling how they caught shark by using grenades causing a concussion, and how they would take a bunch of empty beer bottles and drop them as they flew over islands to scare the natives since they made a whistling sound as they fell sounding like bombs. It must have been the best of times and the worst of times as they say.