Found a lovely photo of a 1945-built R4D/C-47J in the markings of the United States Naval Attache in Canberra, Australia. The bird was photographed at Davis-Monthan in 1968, and looks to be pristine, so I’m guessing it’s fairly recent to that date. [Full (copyrighted) photo is visible here, about 1/3 down the page.] Markings for the entire aircraft are fairly standard, except for a single red kangaroo silhouette – looking sort of like a victory or mission mark – located on the rudder, just above the US flag.
Anybody have any thought as to what it might represent? An affectionate nod to the host country? Private joke among the groundcrew? The marking isn’t super-prominent, but it is highly visible, so presumably it had (or, at least, didn’t openly defy) some sort of official sanction. It looks almost like the silhouette logo (same color) used on the aircraft of Australia’s TAA airline of the era, but, well…a kangaroo is a kangaroo.
Any thoughts or speculation would be welcome.
knowing our relationship with the Aussies, it was probably a nod to them being hosts
Knowing Aviation people, it also could be a Zap. (6094 could be right, also)
A Zap is done without the squadron’s knowledge, and if it is painted on like that, it is done with a touch of respect for the unit you are zapping. When zapping, you are careful to use a mask and a good can of paint, you want your mark to look good enough that the zappee might consider keeping it on their aircraft.
The land bases type is usually done by grabbing one of your unit’s stencils, but, in this case, it looks exactly like the right shape to be an Australian Insignia Roo stencil.
Aboard a ship, the Zap is more often some graffiti, which usually had to be washed off by the pilot, this type of zap was usually earned by landing on the “wrong” carrier for some reason.
Zaps didn’t have to be unit badges or white graffiti, though. VMFA-115 Silver Eagles picked up a pair of Boondockers painted on Eagle feet on their tail badges,by some VMFA-314 ground crew. (one of which served his next deployment with -115, lol. Makes for an “interesting” photo in an old Gunny’s cruise book collection. (sorry, forgot the part where this happened in the Vietnam era, and both were Phantom squadrons at the time)
Many thanks for your replies, Gentlemen.
The “zap” theory seems very much in keeping with the nature of intra-unit rivaly as well as the Australian temperament in general. And the observation that it might be an insignia stencil is an excellent call.
Thanks again.
Hey, thanks for the link to the Davis-Monthan pictures!
Cool pics, especially the Tennessee Air Guard C-97 from Memphis!
My pleasure, and thanks for jogging my memory. I’d meant post a link in the general section.
The kangaroo would definitely be a zap. I worked at 34SQN in the 80s and 90s which was the resident RAAF unit at Canberra. I managed to zap a few visiting aircraft including a C-5 and USN C-130 while I was there [:)]