Captain Fred W. Dallas is one of the many fabulous Texans in the U.S. Army Air Forces. He has a reputation as a "hot pilot," gained by flying his huge bomber at tree-top level over the homes of friends near American fields where he received his flight training. One day he had the bad luck to fly low over a party attended by his commanding general. For it he was grounded until his exuberance cooled. Today he uses his flying skill to keep his B-17, the Peggy D, in a tight defensive squadron formation so that all the guns of his squadron can be brought to bear most effectively against the swarms of Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulfs it meets over European targets.Dallas wears the loose cap of the Air Forces, from which the inner brace has been removed to distinguish its wearer from members of the other branches of the Army. In the background, powerful and deadly in the blue sky, is his Fortress--something he prizes above all worldly things.
Captain Dallas' set, purposeful face is typical of the men Peter Hurd met at the bomber station. In painting it, he portrayed the ideals and unity of purpose of these young fliers who are involved in an emotional movement even greater than the Crusades. All of them are realists, essentially modest and imbued with a native bravery. All of them have faced death a hundred times.
Life February 15, 1943
4 comments:
Yeah, that's my homeboy!
and with the last name Dallas no less!
"The stars at night ... are big and bright (clap, clap, clap, clap) ... deep in the heart of Texas!"
should've kept my smileys for that one. had to get rid of them b/c Spybot found something like 138 problems that night.
Geez.
Don't download the smileys. i don't guess it harms anything, but stuff slowed down on the keyboard. I could actually keep up with the keys!
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