3d Weather Squadron insignia, Duncan Field

[gunbarrel]

Browsing through the July 7, 1941 issue of LIFE magazine (that's the "Defense Issue - US Arms" with Patton on the cover), I noticed this letter to the editor. I did not realize that Disney was designing insignias for the military before we entered the war!

[disneydave]

Thanks for posting that image gunbarrel.

According to my database, this particular design was created in April 1941 for the 3rd Weather Squadron. The character in the design is one of the Cupids from the feature film [i]Fantasia[/i]. The image also made an appearance on a war bond poster in 1943.

Mickey Mouse was the first Disney character to appear on an insignia design - the emblem was created in October 1931 and pictured Mickey atop a diving bird with the Statue of Liberty in the background. The design was created for the Naval Reserve Aviation Base at Floyd Bennett Field in New York. This design was not created by a Disney artist, but rather some enterprising artist at the base.

I have a copy of a photo of famed aviator Frank Hawks standing beside a Curtis O2C-1 Helldiver and the Mickey image is clearly visible on the plane's fuselage. I also have an image of an Ensign standing beside a plane with the design visible on both a patch on his jacket and on the plane.

A total of 71 designs were created by Disney artists before the Declaration of War in December 1941.

The first sanctioned Disney insignia was created in May 1939 for VF-7 aboard the USS [i]Wasp[/i]. When the carrier was sunk in the early days of the war, Disney artist Hank Porter created another design for the new [i]Wasp[/i], which he based on the first [i]Wasp[/i]'s design.

The second design was requested in March 1940 by Lt. E.S. Caldwell, a Naval Operations officer in Washington, D.C., for Lt. John Bulkeley's Mosquito Fleet of PT boats stationed in the Philippines - the same boats that evacuated both General Douglas MacArthur and the Philippine's President out of harm's way in the opening days of the war.

Bulkeley was Commander of PT Squad(RON) Three at the time. He later wrote to Walt Disney: "This squadron carried an insignia designed and painted by you of a mosquito riding a torpedo...the officers and men of the squadron all feelt hat your insignia contributed materially to the spirit and morale of teh Squadron."

I'll post images of all of the above at a later date.

[gunbarrel]

Dave,

 

Thank you, very much, for the information. Looking forward to you posting those images.

[ocsfollowme]

I picked this patch up today. A pretty chained stitch WW2 insignia of the 3rd Weather Squadron. MODs, if you could rename this thread "3rd Weather Squadron" that would be swell.

 

 

 

[ocsfollowme]

[ocsfollowme]

This patch is 5.5 in diameter.

[firefighter]

Great looking patch.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Weather_Squadron