The Lost Westover Field Sketchbook
One day in the summer of 1996 I got a call from a woman named "Peanuts" Johnson, who told me that she had seen an article about Dad Rarey in the February, 1996, issue of Air Force Magazine. She had known my parents in the spring of '43 while my father was training at Westover Field, Massachusetts, when the newly fledged pilots got their P-47s. Her husband, Lester Johnson, had been commander of the training squadron that formed up. Capt. Johnson and my father had collaborated on an illustrated daybook of the squadron activities.Then she told me that she was going to send me this sketchbook that I didn't even know existed!
And she did.
Here are are a few of the drawings from the long-lost squadron journal - the forerunner of the later journals of the 379th Fighter Squadron.
- Damon Rarey
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A full page from the Westover Sketchbook.
Finally the weather breaks.
Engine trouble.
Time for R & R.
The sackman augurs in.Ink and watercolor drawing of the P-47 gracing the cover of the Westover Sketchbook.
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Rarey created this insignia which was made into the official squadron patch. Here are the the original drawing and the patch itself.
Please email Damon Rarey with comments.
