[303rd-Talk] Forwarded Nose art question

[Bill Jones]

Resending this, because the list seems to have killed my first attempt.


I just received a question from Gerald Potts that I thought might be 
answered here, so I'm including the message below.  The list does not
allow attachments, so the photo he mentions can be viewed at:
http://www.303rdbg.com/303rd-talk/303rd-talk-photos/Red-Ass-Logo.jpg 
I have responded to him with my personal opinion (that based on other
nose art examples, I doubt that there was any policy), and I'm inviting
him to discuss the question on the list, but I'll forward any responses
back to him if he doesn't. 

Message:
********************************************************************
From: Gerald Potts <#############>  {I've deleted his email address}
To: <wejones at megalink.net>
Subject: B-17's
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:01:22 -0800

Dear Bill:
 
My Uncle was a waist gunner on a 17 during the war.  He was part of 
Pharis Brinkley's crew with the 360th flying out of Molesworth England.
 One of the planes he flew on was "Red Ass," (before it was lost) but
he flew most of his missions in "Satan's Workshop."  His name was Guy
Lance.  In recent years I've become very interested in what he did 
during the war and I've had a very good time on the 303rd web page.  
I'm hoping you can answer this question, albeit not an important one. 
The nose art for Red Ass is a donkey kicking his feet backward, with an
explosion where his feet are kicking.  Under the donkey there are two
letters in morse code.  The first letter is "R" and the second is "A,"
no doubt meaning  "Red Ass."  My question is, did the military have a
policy about what they perceived in those days as profanity, not being
allowed on the noses of their aircraft? Or is it possible the artist 
for this logo was just being creative?  
 
Thank You,
 
Gerald Potts.
 
I copied the logo from the nose of a bomber and have included it here. 
I cleaned it up in photoshop 5, as I had to remove the planes windows
and color inconsistencies.  There are two attachments, both the same 
picture.  The first can be opened with Adobe Photoshop and the second
can be viewed with almost any program as it is in a Jpeg format.
 
Thank You Again.
***************************************************************


Bill Jones         N3JLQ
Sweden Maine
wejones at megalink.net
http://www.megalink.net/~wejones