Artwork, Objects and Photographs


Click on a picture to see a bigger or more complete version.
36 KB

Damon Rarey:
My father carved this flyboy as a base for his wings. When he was drafted he was having some success with commissions to create carvings for Fifth Avenue window displays in New York City.








41 KB

Rarey with his P-47 Thunderbolt.




72 KB

Rarey in Greenwich Village before being drafted.







100 KB

Betty Lou's memoir of life in NYC before the war.




53 KB

Bob McKee:
S-2 designated the intelligence section at the squadron level. The personnel therein gathered information from many sources, including pilot debriefings, for future use in briefing pilots prior to each mission. Of course, this info was sent to 8th Air Force Headquarters-Intelligence, analyzed, and then redistributed to all flying units. These were very busy people, day and night. No weather "Stand Down" time for them! Much like the aircraft maintenance personnel.



277KB

Rarey's letter: April 14, 1944.
"Nissen" as in Nissen hut is merely the name of some misled, well-meaning individual who invented them. A Nissen is sort of a shelter (at best), sort of like an empty tomato can half buried in the mud with a door and two windows at either end. We live in them and scream about them, but they are pretty cozy little deals at that.



81 KB

Damon Rarey:
My dad changed his insignia to "Damon's Demon" after I was born. Click the picture to see a large version of this great watercolor, and a tribute to him and his nose art, from "Blood, Sweat, and Fears"by Andy Anderson.



21 KB


A 3 by 4 inch fragment from the fuselage of Damon's Demon, found in France 51 years after D-day.



120 KB


The lost Westover Field sketchbook surfaced 50 years after the war.




22 KB

Damon Rarey:
This is a portrait of Capt. William Flavin in front of his P-47, "Barfly." When my dad was KIA, Capt. Flavin was his closest friend. Later Flavin became Commanding Officer of the 379th squadron. He returned home after the war, eventually to marry my mother and become the father I knew as I grew up. He continued to fly, attended college on the G.I. Bill, and went to work for North American Aviation where he tested the F-86 Sabre Jet. In 1953, when I was 9, he was killed in a flying accident in an F-86. He is survived by my half-sister, Courtney Flavin.



22 KB

A fairly current snapshot of my mother, Betty Lou.



22 KB

Yours truly.



An account of our trip to Ireland and Normandy, where we visited my father's grave and the crash site of "Damon's Demon."
In Memoriam: Francoise Chuinard



Prince Philip of England gets a copy of Laughter and Tears.