Saturday 24 August 2013

Other Artwork - Arnold the Pig (11310)

Other artwork - "Arnold"

A piece of artwork that is worth some mention is that of “Arnold the Pig”. The artist, Bill Ewing who served as a technician on 442 Squadron from 1975 to 1978, tells the story of Arnold here. “And now the tale of "Arnold"!!  Sometime during 1975, we had a Base Alert and all of 442 (Squadron) ended up locked into a hallway in the big hangar.  A couple of the Flight Engineers got talking about how much they hated 310 due to the different stuff it had, like hydraulic hoist, no long-range external tanks, it's instability on the water (also because of the lack of sponson tanks), and the different rotor heads.  I was sitting there listening to all these "tales of woe" and started to doodle a cartoon of a pig, standing erect and wearing a tin helmet (old style).  They got a laugh out of it.  Anyway, I got dared to paint it on 310 once we got back into the hangar.  A challenge is a challenge, so once the Alert was over I dragged a stand over to 310, found some red & white and mixed up a pink, picked up a paintbrush and started.  All was going well (I thought), when I looked over my shoulder to find (a) the Base Commander, (b) his Adj, (c) the Squadron Commander, (d) and various other underlings, all gathered around watching me apply the new marking.  I figured that was the end of my military career right then and there.  And finally came the moment I had dreaded - someone asked the significance of the pig (which now had the name "Arnold" applied underneath).  Before I could gather my thoughts enough to come up with an answer, Marc Demers (442 Squadron Commanding Officer) hummed and hawed then replied something about it being any Army aircraft, etc.  I finished the job, put my stuff away and "got the hell out of Dodge".  Demers later questioned me on it, and I 'fessed up, but he just laughed and gave the okay for it to remain on 310.  I think it was still there when it was returned to the Grunts.”




For many years after the green livery disappeared, 310 retained the name "Arnold" even though the image of Arnold was not reproduced on the yellow 310.



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