18.64MB - View From The Trenches

OPERATION RAINBOW
Results of Contest #I31
By Rex A. Martin
For the contest of Vol. 23, No. 1, I decided on a departure from our usual
brain-wracking puzzles. Bored beyond measure with contriving yet another mind-
bender, it struck me that the readership might like a different kind of challenge-
one laced with a bit of fun and fantasy. What could be more natural than an
art contest? Everybody likes pretty pictures, and some can even draw them.
So Contest #I31 called for entrants to submit a name, and appropriate nose
art, for a B-17 bomber.
The men who flew in those hazardous skies over Occupied Germany had
a lovethate relationship with the lumbering but tough B-17. Quite simply, their
lives depended on their craft. It was inevitable that some would personalize
their planes. (Americans have a deep "feeling" for their machines-be they
planes, boats, cars, computers-that I've never noted in any other nationality;
they go so far as to invest them with human qualities despite their bodies of
tin and innards of wire.) At the beginning of American involvement in World
War XI, crews of the USAAF would plaster the bombers with drawings and
photographs-usually of risque-clad ladies, famous or not, clipped from pages
of popular magazines of the times. From this evolved the actual painting of
these on the aircraft skin, mainly the nose section. This art form developed
such with the increasing number of aircraft being deployed in Europe and the
Pacific that by the end of the war a small industry for the best artists had arisen
Pool Shark
Don Hawthorne
Clayville, Rhode Island
Rusty Knights
Don Hawthorne
Clayville, Rhode Island
(one commanded as much as $15.00 per aircraft). By the onset of the Korean
War, the art had lost its "virginity", moving with the times to less romantic
imagery. During the American involvement in Vietnam, nose art as such did
not exist.
This art-form was one thrown up at a time of crisis, a chance to be seen and
remembered. It was, for the average American airman in the war, a personal
form of expression not catered for in the official squadron insignia. Whatever
fantasies the pictures may have provided for him, these paintings on his air-
craft imbued that mass-production piece of hardware with a personality no serial
number could ever give. We wanted to honor that aspect of their war with this
contest, and I was most impressed with the results.
The response to our contest was surprising, bringing a great many entries
ranging from crude pencil sketches to one acrylic painting on canvas. The three
judges-Charlie Kibler (our resident artist), Bruce Shelley (the developer of
B-17, QUEEN OF THE SKIES) and myself-were overwhelmed. Literally, the
entrants filled the sky with color. With much trepidation, we began the
winnowing process. Each selected his ten favorites in isolation from the the
other judges. Then we three met, compared our lists, and ended up with 19
entries for which at least one of us had voted. After much argument, we came
to a consensus. And I announced the ten winners in Vol. 23, No. 3
Just Plane Goofy ,
Richard Vigorito
Phoenix, Arizona
Amazin' Grace
Don Hawthorne
Clayville, Rhode Island