Original sketch of the nose art by Clayton Hutsell.

In early 1944 William B. "Pappy" Munroe's crew was winding up phase training in B-24s with the 486th BG at Davis Monthan Field near Tucson, Arizona. We [the crew] called our pilot "Pappy" for two reasons. He was older than the rest of us , 25 years of age and he already had two children. Pappy hailed from Tallahassee, Florida and was a true southern gentleman from the old south.

One day as we were walking back from the flight line after a training mission Pappy pulled a rumpled piece of paper from his pocket and showed it to me. His wife, Fanny, had enclosed it with her latest letter to him. The paper had a paste up on it of the cartoon character Pappy Yocum after he had overindulged in turnips during the turnip harvest. Excessive eating of turnips had turned him into green imp with pointed ears. There was a scribbled sketch on the paper with the words 'Pappy and his Chillun' arranged around the Pappy Yocum paste up. This was Fanny's suggestion for the name of the crew and our airplane. [ We had just been presented with a brand new B-24H.]. Pappy knew that I had been doing some colored pencil drawings in my spare time and asked me if I thought I could design a picture to go on the nose of our new B-24. I agreed to give it a try.

I made a color pencil sketch of what I thought was wanted only changing the words to Pappy's Chillun. Pappy thought it was OK so I had my work cut out for me. We flew to Herrrington, Kansas for processing. From there we flew the southern route, West Palm Beach, Florida, Puerta Rico, British Guiana, Belem, Brazil, Natal, Brazil, Dakar, Africa, Marrakesh, Morrocco, Valley, Wales and finally to Station 174 at Sudbury, Suffolk Co. in East Anglia, England. I picked up paint and brushes where ever I could find them on the way. I started the drawing on the airplane in Dakar. We then flew toward Marakesh with the Atlas Mountains between us and our destination. We had been briefed at a specific altitude to go through a pass in the mountains. Crossing the desert we encountered a sand storm which forced us to seek a higher altitude. It was then we discovered that our plane couldn't climb to an altitude high enough to clear the mountains and at our higher altitude our navigator was unsure just where the pass was so we made an end run around the mountain range having just enough fuel to make it.

We stayed at Marakesh a couple of days so I took advantage of the time to paint on our "nose art". I finished the picture of Pappy Yocum. However, I ran out of red paint for the lettering so decided to wait 'til we got to England where I hoped to get a resupply. Our plane was parked out at the end of the line so we had to keep a guard on the plane. Since I was already there I drew the job as guard. As I was putting the finishing touches on "Pappy Yocum" I heard the roar of a truck engine coming closer and closer. A truck load of Morroccoan natives came rolling by. When they saw the painting of "Pappy Yocum" they stopped, started pointing and jabbering [I'm sure they were conversing in there native language but it sounded like gibberish to me]. Finally I waved at them to continue on their way but they just stayed there, getting louder. Then I unsnapped my holster and brought my army 45 up to the ready.They didn't move. I reached over with my left hand, pulled the slide back and charged a round into the chamber. They got the message and left the area, post haste. I intended to protect my art work if not the plane.

After a few days at Sudbury we went to the hardstand for a training flight. Lo and behold our original plane was gone and my art work with it. Pappy soon appeared on the scene and told me that because the plane couldn't get to altitude they had flown it off somewhere to a modification depot. That was the last I ever saw of that plane and my art work. Being a lead crew we flew various airplanes on our missions so we never tried to put our crew name on another plane. However, I did set out to paint all the crew's A2 jackets. All ten of the crew member's jackets soon had the lettering 'Pappy's Chillun' On them when a couple of things happened; the officers traded their A2s for the newer jackets with a fur collar on them and our squadron commander issued an order to the effect that there would be no more painting on leather jackets.That ended it for the time being.

On Oct. 3, 1944 the ball turret gunner and I flew our last mission. Crews were being cut from 10 members to 9 and the ball turret in the lead planes was replaced by PFF pathfinder equipment. The lead crews always carried an extra man or two so the ball turret gunner and I were excess baggage. We left to go to Bamber Bridge, Scotland near Glasgow to await passage on the Queen Elizabeth for the zone of the interior. It was at Bamber Bridge that I finally completed painting Pappy Yocum on my A2 jacket and the jacket of Tunis B. Lathrop, our ball turret gunner. Then came home sweet home and later the end of the war.

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