Aircraft in the movie "Memphis Belle", a hell of a good movie

this info is from Steve (Servicide.blogspot.com) who always amazes me with the stuff he knows or finds out about things I've posted.

The original B-17 had two different colors on the bathing suits - blue on the port side and red on the starboard side.
 The image was taken from George Petty's April 1941 pinup in Esquire magazine.

 The pilot, Robert Morgan had gotten Petty's phone number from the magazine and asked him for permission to reproduce the artwork. Petty was gracious and even thrilled to be a part of it. Corporal Tony Starcer, who was an artist in the Squadron, painted the images on the fuselage. Morgan had told Starcer, "I don't care what color you put on her bathing suit, as long as you put a bathing suit on her." When restored the first time, the pinups were repainted a bit too hefty (see the blue suit image).

 The current restoration is returning them to their wartime figures (red image),

 I saw the Memphis Belle on Mud Island in Memphis in 1987, just shortly after it went on display there.

1943 Ford GPA, General Purpose Amphibian (jeep boat)

as always, the image you see is just a small version of the full one at your fingertips, just left click on anything for the big image

Memorial Day post #2 (even if I'm a day late and it has nothing in keeping with my normal vehicular philosophy) Beirut, 1983,

The Beirut Barracks Bombing (October 23, 1983 in Beirut, Lebanon) occurred during the Lebanese Civil War,

 when two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces—
 killing 299 American and French servicemen.

 The organization Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing. Suicide bombers detonated each of the truck bombs.

 In the attack on the American Marines barracks, the death toll was 241 American servicemen:

 220 Marines, 18 Navy personnel and three Army soldiers, along with sixty Americans injured

 In the attack on the French barracks, the eight-story 'Drakkar' building,

 58 paratroopers from the 1st Parachute Chasseur Regiment were killed and 15 injured,

 The wife and four children of a Lebanese janitor at the French building were also killed.

 The blasts led to the withdrawal of the international peacekeeping force from Lebanon, where they had been stationed since the withdrawal of the Palestine Liberation Organization following the Israeli 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Beirut_barracks_bombingc

 I specifically single out this loss of USMC by hostile forces not of a military force of any nation, not in a declared war between their country and that of those they killed. Not of a people oppressed by an occupying force (US revolutionary forces vs British forces).

My remembering the USMC and French military loss of 10-23-83, that is what the USA has a Memorial day for. That and many many more examples and losses of US military members, that is what Memorial Day is for. Not for sales at the grocery store, or Nascar races, or 3 day weekends. 

1942 Harley Davidson XA military grade hog... not a v twin.