Don Allen

Don Allen graduated from the Cleveland School of Art in 1941 with a major in illustration. He had one year of civilian life before the draft caught up with him in December 1942. The Army trained him as an engine and airframe mechanic and sent him to England, where he was assigned to the 4th Fighter Group's 334th Fighter Squadron as a crew chief.

The 4th Fighter Group had a distinguished lineage. It descended from the Eagle Squadrons, volunteer American pilots who had flown with the Royal Air Force before the United States entered the war. By the time Allen arrived, the group was flying Spitfires, then transitioning to P-47 Thunderbolts, and finally to P-51 Mustangs.

Allen served as both crew chief and artist simultaneously. He created over sixty airplane names and mascots for the 4th Fighter Group, adorning Spitfires, Thunderbolts, and Mustangs as the group transitioned through three different fighter types. New pilots transferring into the group often requested his services. He was the unofficial group artist, working between his mechanical duties to personalize the aircraft that his pilots flew into combat.

After the war, Allen returned to Cleveland and picked up where he had left off. He joined Ad Art Studios in Cleveland and worked as an advertising artist until his retirement in 1995. A fifty-year career in commercial art, bookended by four years of painting fighter planes in England.

Allen's story is the counterpoint to Tony Starcer's. Where Starcer abandoned art and disappeared into a warehouse, Allen went home and built the career his training had prepared him for. Both men painted nose art. Both were good at it. One found the war a dead end for his talent. The other found it a detour.