HIGH LIFE

On Saturday (17th August) dad and I were invited by the 100th Air Refueling Wing to the nose art reveal for one of their KC-135T’s that I was very fortunate enough to have digitised for them. The nose art was “High Life”, this was the nose art painted on the nose of 42-30080 B-17F of the 100th Bombardment Group, 351st Bombardment Squadron based at Thorpe Abbotts during World War II, named after the Miller High Life Beer. This aircraft was forced to leave the formation on a mission to Regensburg on the 17th August 1943, the aircraft had two engines knocked out by enemy fighters, High Life and her crew would end up crash landing in Switzerland and the crew becoming interned for the remainder of the war, on that mission the 100th would lose 9 aircraft, 90 young men either MIA or sadly KIA.

The event was made even more special with the attendance of 100th BG family members and Mr Kirk Saduski (who was the executive-in-charge for HBO’s Band of Brothers, the Pacific and most recently Apple TV+’s Masters of the air). But most importantly the ceremony was graced by two family members of the High Life Crew, Col Ryan Garlow (great grandson of High Life’s Radio Operator T/Sgt Jim Scott) and Paula Harper Sparks (Daughter of High Life’s Co-pilot Lt Joe Harper), I had the pleasure of meeting both of them and presenting them both with a leather patch that I designed and created in front of 59-1470 that currently wears the High Life nose art. We had some incredible speeches before the unveiling, but the highlight for me was to see how much the nose art meant to both Col Garlow and Paula Harper Sparks which made it even more of an honour to work on this nose art and to show my appreciation for what those young men done for our country and our future (as well as for their own country of course) alongside our brave armed forces and allies during the Second World War.