demons:

On December 7, 1941, 22-year-old pilot Cornelia Fort essentially became the very first American woman pilot in a combat zone while flying over Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. With hundreds of hours of flying experience, the Nashville native was one of the most experienced pilots in the country and while two other civilian planes were shot out of the sky she landed her plane and made it through Japanese strafing.

After surviving the Japanese attack Fort left Hawaii when the US government banned civilian flying, she returned to the mainland in February 1942. Seven months later, she was among the first 25 pilots the War Department recruited for the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS). WAFS — who would later become known as WASP — pilots supported the war effort by delivering military planes to bases throughout the United States.

In March 1943, Cornelia Fort was killed by a midair collision while on a ferrying mission to Dallas. She was the first American woman pilot to die on active duty as apart of the Auxiliary service.

Bringing Up Father was a cartoon strip that ran from 1913 to 2000.  The two main characters were Jiggs and Maggie. Both were popular characters used for nose art.  Jiggs was used for the patch of the 11th Bomb Squadron.

Big Time Operator (BTO) in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO).

The jacket’s owner fancies himself to be a wolf (guy who likes to pick-up girls) from California.

Snicklefritz was originally used in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, where Snicklefritz is an affectionate name for a mischievous or overly talkative child.

Schnickelfritz was the name of a somewhat popular comedy band in the 1930s, which may be the origin of its comparative popularity.

The personal jacket of a tail gunner…Tail End Charlie

The personal jacket art of Delwyn “HiHo” Silver at the end of his tour of operations.

Major (later Lt. Colonel) Silver was on the Group Staff, being at various times Assistant Operations Officer, Group Operations Officer, Deputy Group Commander and Group Air Exec. By the time he finished his 30-mission tour he had led the 401st Bomb Group nine times, led the 94th Combat Bomb Wing seven times and twice flew as Deputy Air Commander of the whole 1st Air Division.

For those unfamiliar with American cowboy mythology, the ‘Lone Ranger’ was a radio show in the 1930 to 40’s. He wore a mask to cover his face, his bullets were cast from silver, and his horse was named Silver.  With the galloping hoofbeats, the Lone Ranger would yell, “Hi Ho Silver ! Away !!”

Why Major Silver has what appears to be a goat riding a horse ??? Your guess would be as good as any.

The mission marks on this jacket represent:

100 mission symbols, 5 Japanese flags (presumably fighter kills), one battleship kill, 4 cruiser kills, six merchant ship kills and two smaller craft.

This was T/Sgt James W. Cannon’s record in the Pacific Theatre of Operations, before he was assigned to the 8th AF in the ETO !

“Technical Sergeant James W Cannon is a modest fellow. Although only 21 years old, here is his incredible record:

He has flown 68 operational missions in the South Pacific in B-25s, B-26s, B-17s and B-29s, and B-17s in the ETO.

Confirmed credit for the destruction of five Jap Zeros. (this technically makes him an Ace)

He took part on the Battle of the Bismark Sea when his aircraft skip-bombed at 30 feet over the water and sank a Jap heavy cruiser.

He wears the Silver Star, DFC with two Oak Leaf clusters, Air Medal with eight clusters, Purple Heart, Asiatic-South Pacific ribbon with two bronze stars, ETO ribbon with two stars, Presidential Citation Award with two clusters and the American Defense and Good Conduct ribbons.”

Lovely Lisa

Pistol Packin’ Mama, a 1943 popular rock-a-billy song turned pop song by Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters.  This popular song title probably graced the artwork on more airplanes than any other song of WW2.

Lay that pistol down, Babe.
Lay that pistol down.
Pistol packin mama
Lay that pistol down.

Oh, drinkin beer in a cabaret
Was I havin fun!
Until one night she caught me right
And now I'm on the run.

Oh, lay that pistol down, Babe.
Lay that pistol down.
Pistol packin mama
Lay that thing down before it goes off and hurts somebody!

Two members of the same crew with their jackets personalized for their home state.