McDonnell Douglas Phantom II

My Uncle Phil Houghton after flying P 51’s Mustang out of Okinawa escorting B 29 to Japan, returned to St Louis Mo after the war and flew a P 51 in two man acrobatic competition with the Missouri Air National Guard winning several national competitions. In St Louis, he was hired by the new McDonnell company as a test pilot. He flew as a test pilot McDonnell’s FH Phantom 1, F 2H Banshee, F 3H Demon, F 101 Voodoo, and the F4 Phantom II. Late in his career as the chief production pilot he tested before delivering F4 Phantom’s to the Royal Air Force, the Luftwaffe, and the Israeli Air Force. This is a painting I did for Columbia Memorial Day Airshow honoring Captain Bill Boston. This is the description of the mission that earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross;

“In 1972, Captain Bill Boston received the Distinguished Flying Cross for an act of valor during the Vietnam War. Captain Burnley L. Rudiger describes the mission in his letter of recommendation, November 13, 1971. Deep in enemy territory, Capt. Rudiger and his team of twelve men requested further support for his mission, after the initial support given by the US Army Cobra gunships were completely expended. Two F-4 Phantoms were dispatched and briefed as to the critical nature of the mission and poor weather. In Capt. Rudiger's words, "This entire mission was flown in a very hostile smalls arms and 50 caliber antiaircraft environment and well within ranges of these weapons. The weather was becoming almost unworkable. Without regard for his personal safety, Gunfighter 01 delivered his ordnance with an accuracy which would have been worthy of praise under even the best possible conditions. As a direct result of the effort put forth by Gunfighter 01, the team was extracted safely from their position without loss." Capt. Bill Boston, Gunfighter 01, was Central Missouri Aviation's 1999 Memorial Day Honoree. This is a painting of Gunfighter 1 with his ordinance for that mission with gunfighter 2.

Major Richard Bong's Lockheed P-38 Lightning

On April 12, 1944 over Hollandia, New Guinea, in the Pacific Ocean, Major Richard Bong, flying his P-38 "Marge" with the 80th Fighter Squadron, providing fighter cover for the B-24s of the Fifth Air Force. The two confirmed victories that day were Major Bong's twenty -sixth and twenty-seventh, which surpassed Captain Eddie Rickenbacker's record of twenty-six in WWI. Several weeks after Allied forces captured Hollandia, Navy divers, using Major Bong's pinpoint directions, found the wreckage of a reported probable kill, officially confirming Bong's number twenty-eighth. By war's end, Major Richard Bong led all American aces with forty victories and received the Medal of Honor. Returning stateside, after having been pulled from combat as a war hero, Major Bong was tragically killed on August 6, 1945, in a crash of the new Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star jet fighter in Burbank, California. This painting is of Major Bong's on April 12, 1944 over Hollandia, New Guinea, when he shot down 3 Japanese fighters, including this Japanese Army Air Force "Oscar."

Blue Angel's McDonnell Douglaus F/A-18 Hornet on static display before the 1993 air show at Central Missouri Aviation.

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Supermarine Spitfire MkII in the Battle of Britain

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." This is a painting of a Supermarine Spitfire Mk 2 downing a Messerschmidt 109, what became a daily occurrence in the summer of 1940, the "Battle of Britain." The air battles were fought over Britain between the 10th July and 31st October 1940. " But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour."-Winston Churchill

Boeing B 29 Superfortress

With the invasion of South Korea in the spring of 1950, war weary B-29's from WWII airbases in Guam were pressed back into service. Flying out of Okinawa's Kaoena AFB, B-29's of the 28th, 30th, and 93rd bomber squadrons of the 19th Bomb Group flew to the Korean Peninsula against enemy targets. By October of 1951, heavy casualties eventually forced the USAF to fly night missions to stem their heavy loses early in the war. During the time brave B-29 pilots and crews flew their missions against heavy MIG interceptions until the 19th Bomb Groups last mission on July 18,1953. By the end of the war, the 19th Bomb Group was responsible for over half of the FEAF bomber command's 1,000 plus missions of the war. For the year 2000, Central Missouri Aviation honors Capt. Charlie Diggs for his heroic service with the 19th Bomb Group. This is a painting of his aircraft, including a B 29 with an engine problem, from a brownie camera photo he took from his aircraft.

B 24 Consolidated Liberator

My father, William Unger Jr, served in the China/Burma/India theater in C46 and C47 delivering fuel and supplies with the Tenth Air Force’s Air Transport Command. Flying from Karachi, Pakistan, Chittagong, Pakistan and Assam, India Army Air Corp airfields over “the hump” to the Flying Tigers in the first year of the war, and later the 23th fighter group at Kunming, China. “Bill” received the Air Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross during his combat tour. He transfered back to the US in Long Beach Calif. Then with the ferry command, he ferried B 24 bombers to Hawaii in route to SE Asia. Bomb bays were filled with 50 gal drums of fuel, it was the longest flight at that time in the world.

For Memorial Day 2001, Central Missouri Aviation honored Lieutenant Robert N. Hunter and his flight crew in his B-24 Liberator. Lt. Hunter and the 512th Squadron of the 376th Bomb Group, known as the "Liberandos" flew their B-24s deep into Axis occupied Eastern Europe in an attempt to cripple Nazi Germany's supply of refined oil. The oil fields and refineries of Ploesti, Romania became absolutely critical to Hitler's war machine. The heavily defended target became the Liberando's top priority. Numerous bombing missions in the spring and summer of 1944 by the 376th included Mission #279, led by Lt. Hunter. The report made following the mission reads as follows: "June 24, 1944 bombing mission to Ploesti, Romania, oil refineries and rail yards. Anti-aircraft heavy and accurate. Escorted by four fighter groups of P-38s and P-51s. Enemy interceptors estimated at over 50 ME-109s and 200 FW-190s. Three ME-109s believed shot down. Aircraft losses: 2 destroyed, 2 missing, 1 crash landed. Personnel: 52 missing, 15 seriously wounded." For his contribution to the mission and bravery of his men, Lt. Robert N. Hunter was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Army Air Corps highest honor. This is a painting of his aircraft.

USMC Captain Matt Vogt flying pass Mt Etna in Sicily before midair refueling on the way to Iraq in his McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II. This painting was done for his father, Peter Vogt, as a gift to his son. The image of Mt Etna is from a photo Capt Vogt took in route.

I did the painting above of Capt. Matt Vogt in the Harrier for Matt’s father Pete Vogt in 2011. Pete unfortunately passed away last year. He was not only a great father to Matt, but also an active member of St Andrews Church. I sat most Sunday with Pete for twenty years. Matt Vogt and Jeff Goldberg now owns Sky Devil Wines. Matt reached out to me recently to do a painting of two F4U Corsairs for a new wine label “Dash Two.”

From Sky Devil Wines website; “Our founders are connected through Marine Corps Aviation. Jeff’s grandfather was a Marine in WWII who served with VMF-311, a Marine F4-U Corsair squadron stationed in the South Pacific. Matt is a third generation Naval Aviator who served as a Marine AV-8B Harrier attack pilot with VMA-542 and VMA-231 during Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. Because of this connection to Marine Aviation, the company was branded Sky Devil Wines. Since WWI, Marines have proudly referred to themselves as Devil Dogs. In time, some Marine pilots began using the term Sky Devil to describe a Devil Dog with wings. The F4-U Corsair, a legendary gull winged fighter plane of WWII, is an iconic and enduring symbol of Sky Devils around the world and is the symbol of our winery.”

I researched and found pictures of the VMF-311 F4U-1 Corsairs on the Yontan airstrips of Okinawa in 1945 with the armament of 6 50. cal machine guns, 3 in each wing. The Corsairs were tasked with intercepting Japanese kamikazes sent to destroy to the invasion fleet and Marines on Okinawa.

“In the slightly more than 4 months of operations in Okinawa, the squadron destroyed 71 Japanese aircraft, the second highest score of any squadron in the Tenth Army Tactical Air Force. VMF-323 took top honors with an impressive 124 kills. VMF-311's outstanding record was all the more noteworthy and gratifying in that only three pilots were lost, and not one was lost in aerial combat with the enemy…… April 6 and 7 1945 the “divine wind” struck with all the fury of an empire on the brink of disaster. In this first of nine general kamikaze attacks, 355 special attack planes, accompanied by almost as many conventional fighters and reconnaissance planes, bore down on Okinawa….. By late June 1945, close to 5,000 U.S. sailors had been killed and 5,000 more wounded by the Japanese suicide pilots. Thirty ships had been sunk and almost 400 others were damaged. The attack on the Fifth Fleet off Okinawa would mark the worst losses of World War II for the U.S. Navy……. When the guns fell silent, more than 240,000 people had lost their lives in the campaign for Okinawa. The American loss rate was 35 percent of the force, totaling 49,151 casualties. Of those, 12,520 were killed or missing and 36,631 were wounded in action.”

Those causality numbers are staggering. The projected loses to invade Japan made Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bombs easy. He never regretted it.

My painting show “Dash Two” Corsairs in the air as they would have appeared in 1944 rising up to likely intercept Japanese Zeros, Val dive bomber, Kate torpedo planes and “divine wind” kamikazes. Thank you Matt and Jeff for the privilege of honoring those WW 2 Marine Corp pilots of VMF-311.

This is how the painting progressed, about 30 hrs just painting. Only 16”x20” smaller than most of my paintings to make it easier to use for wine label.  I’ll include the Cabernet Sauvignon wine label for “Dash Two” when it’s available! Check out Matt and Jeff at www.skydevilwines.com

Marine squadron VMF-311 on the Okinawa airstrip in April 1945