Destinys Child was named by the original crew of 1st Lt. Howard Weber, when each crewmember placed their choice of a name in a hat, and the one drawn was chosen to be the name of the plane. S/Sgt Eugene Letalian, who was the assistant radio operator and waist gunner, placed the name Destinys Child in the hat. They left it up to me to decide what to draw on the nose, provided they all agreed with the design. I drew up a character from one I remembered in a comic strip about hillbillies. That character was called Uncle Rafe, and was the kid in diapers with a long rifle. The crew all liked the design, so I went to work and created the nose art, using bubble letters and the Uncle Rafe character. Destinys Child flew 53 combat missions without having to abort due to mechanical failure, and flew 44 plus missions on the original four engines. Destinys Child was shot down over the Mockhau Air Field near Leipzig, Germany on July 20, 1944. Ironically, on that day, Destinys Child was on standby and not scheduled to fly. The tail gunner, S/Sgt Jack Paget, who flew twenty missions on Destinys Child, watched his former plane go down before he was shot down while flying on Liberty Run.
On July 14, 1944, Jack Gaffney received the Bronze Star for the maintenance work he did on Destinys Child. Mr. Gaffney said, all I could think of was here you are, entrusted with a $300,000 bomber, so you had better take good care of it and those who fly it. He was also awarded the Good Conduct Medal, the Victory Medal, the American Defense Medal, the Distinguished Unit Citation with cluster, and the European Campaign Ribbon with six battle stars. After his service in the 8th Air Force, he worked in the grocery business for 41 years, and then retired to focus on his artwork, with scratchboard art as his specialty. He has also announced high school sports for 25 years. An accomplished dancer and singer, he entertained the troops at Bassignbourn, and recalls this memorable event that occurred during an open house at Bassingbourn. |