28 September, 2011

Profile 59 - "Miss America" as crewed by Howard Jensen

I've been asked "How do you find these guys?!"

Fair question.  The fair answer is by hook, crook, this, that and a lot of travel.  But sometimes, I see them almost every day and have no appreciation until a quirk of circumstance forces a meeting.

Not that you care, but I work out as much as I can.  And, the Club to which I belong has a chalkboard in the entrance of the Men's locker room.  The Porters use it to write generic notes to the Members - "Good morning!  Your porter for today is Troy" and stuff like that.

Well, I enjoy erasing the names and chalking dogfight scenes.  It's my little act of rebellion.  But anyway, a couple of years ago, I happened to overhear one of the elderly members state - to one of the Porters - "How come he never draws any B-24s on the chalk board?"

Well...hook lead to crook lead to this and that...and...well...here we are.

So, I'm finally getting around to Miss America of the 739th BS, 454 BG.  A B-24 H of a whopping 133 combat missions!  And tonight, a little conversation between myself, Flt. Engineer Howard Jensen and his wife settled the first critical question - Do the nude on the co-pilot side of the airplane?  Or, do the enormous mission-tally on the pilot side of the airplane?

Suffice it to say, Howard's a good husband and agreed with his wife.  Which is just as well because I'm lousy at drawing naked women.

Watch this spot...but in the meantime, you might find it interesting to learn where the war took Howard & Co.


20 September, 2011

Profile 58 - FINAL - "Lillian's Limousine" as flown by Eugene McGuire



Have you ever wondered if people notice?

Read this.

"I remember being about 10 yrs old and we had a project at home and he needed some wood.  We were cruising the trash bins of a row of small manufacturing companies and came across some he wanted.  After looking for someone to ask for this scrap wood he took out a pen and paper and left his name and phone number where the wood was.   When I was young I wondered why he would do that for something that was obvious trash but as I got older I knew why."

"Lillian's Limousine" is dedicated to Eugene McGuire, fighter pilot, husband of Lillian...and the father of Eugene, Jr. - a ten year old son who noticed.

R.I.P. Eugene McGuire, Sr.

You're going to live forever.