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VMF-422 | "Flying Buccaneers" | Disney design


walika
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VMF-422 | "Flying Buccaneers" | Disney design

Commissioned: 1.1.43, San Diego
Aircraft Employed: F2A, FM- 1, F4U- 1, SNJ-4, F4U-ID, FG-ID
Overseas: 10.43

Unit non-operational, Jan-May 44 due to loss of 23 fighters to weather during a Tarawa to Funafuti flight.

VJ Day: Okinawa
Returned: 11.45, El Toro
Date Deactivated: 4.30.47, Cherry Point

Nickname of Unit: "Flying Buccaneers"
Artist: Walt Disney Studios
Date of Insignia: 1943
Authorization: HQMC


Millstein writes: Just prior to shipping out in late 1943, squadron members realized that they didn't have an insignia to take with them into combat. One of the pilots, Lt. Mark Syrkin, called his cousin, Mark Hellinger. Hellinger was a famous Hollywood producer and knew Walt Disney personally.

Hellinger placed a call to Disney's home and explained the situation and the lack of time to go thru "channels". Disney told him to have his cousin show up at the studios the next morning. When Lt. Syrkin showed up the next morning there was a package containing 50 hand painted jacket patches which had been painted overnight by the entire Disney Studio staff. A lot of Marines have always said that "Walt was a standup kind of guy". It's very obvious that he was.

Type 1: Hand-painted on aircraft fabric by Walt Disney Studios (50 made)

VMF-422-T1-600.jpg

This example is from the Millstein collection and appears in his book. In a notarized letter from Jeff Millstein he states: "this hand painted insigne of VMF-422 is one of the original 50 examples designed and produced for the pilots . . . by the artists of the Walt Disney Studios directly prior to their departure overseas to combat duty. . .This is the same one which was used in my book."


Type 2: American embroidery on wool
VMF-422-T2-600.jpg

 

 

 

Millstein, Jeff. U. S. Marine Corps Aviation Unit Insignia 1941-1946. p 84.

Rottman, Gordon L. (2002). U.S. Marine Corps World War II Order of Battle - Ground and Air Units in the Pacific War, 1939-1945. p 444.

 

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