I have gone down a rabbit hole while annotating old family photos. I came across a few that my dad had taken of men and aircraft during WWII.
One indicates the location and fighter squadron as:
44th Fighter Squadron, 18th Fighter Group, operating under XIII Fighter Command, Thirteenth Air Force, Guadalcanal, 1943
Dad is no longer here, so I can’t ask him, but there is a name in dad’s handwriting that I recall from his years at Shell Oil - Chet. There isn’t anything I can do with that information, but take a look at the photo. It is a pilot, possibly Chet, posing on the wing of his P-39. I am curious about the artwork. Has anyone come across this?
3 Likes
I did a little quick digging online but only came up with eliminations of what the photo shows. The insignia on the door is not the symbol of the 44th Fighter Squadron, theirs is a sort of Vampire Bat. Also the 44th did not fly P-39s, instead flying P-40’s and then P-38s during WWII. They were there on Oahu on December 7th in P-40s and kept those until switching to P-38s in 1943 while in the South Pacific, which they flew for the rest of the war.
As far as the Donald Duck artwork goes, old Donald was quite popular for both individual nose art as well as Disney designed squadron insignias. But I haven’t found that particular insignia in my quick searching. 
3 Likes
