SI-Blog-LA: The Illustrators' Blog.

I’m curious to see who paints what from our Barksdale trip for the gala presentation this coming October, 2010. In fact, one of the really neat things about the Air Force Art Program is the anticipation of really great av art and all the wonderful artists that participate and the wide range of interpretations . This year, the Art Presentation’s theme is The Air Force Art Program celebrates its 60th Anniversary! Can you believe that? It’s been sixty years of art. And, if you haven’t heard by now, this year’s gala will be at the National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, Oct. 22.

In the previous post, I have enclosed a link to my Photo Bucket site for those who are interested in our six day extravaganza. There you will see 95 pics of the 2000 taken. If you would like to see more, just give me a call at (985)796-0972 or drop me a line at:bensencomp@bellsouth.net . Also, there are some pretty interesting stories about the trip, on my blog, which is: http://graphicgumboben.blogspot.com/

Check out the story entitled,”Gawd, Forbid” It is pretty funny!

One last FYI, because our paintings travel worldwide to all kinds of different venues, Guy Franklin has instituted some guidelines for those who would prefer to frame their artwork themselves. The guidelines are there mainly to protect the art and the frames from further damage in route, and to assist the many galleries that hang up and take down the art. So, if you plan to frame your own, please checkout this pdf by emailing me at: bensencomp@bellsouth.net.

The third day, all of us were up at sunrise to be a part of the squadron exercise and have a pre-flight briefing before being bused out to the awaiting bomber later that day. It was a full day. Our crew plus we three artists ( code name, Stooges… you guess, who was who! ) returned from our flight around 10 pm and after another hour of debriefing, were too wasted to enjoy the local cuisine.. Needless to say, I escorted the then dubbed “B-52 Gang” all over the town enjoying great food, local libations and lots of laughs for the balance of our tour. By the end of the sixth day, we accrued over 2000 photos including videos of the mid air refueling. For more photos, go to:

http://s793.photobucket.com/albums/yy213/bensencomp/Barksdale%202010/

This was our “mother” helping us get in and out of seat belts, parachute straps, oxygen mask setups and prevented one “Schmoe” from releasing the “T” ring on his parachute, which for all practical purposes would have opened his chute in the plane. She also picked out some tunes for all to hear in our intercom, after our mission was completed and headed back to base. I don’t think I will ever hear Don McLean’s, “American Pie” the same way ever again. She was great. Her real name is Schera Bowden, but we knew her as “Charlie”. She normally is the electronic warfare officer on board… when not catering to our “comforts!” By the way, Schera, pink is a nice color when juxtaposed to camo!

Here’s a cleaned up sketch of our refueling flight B-52 commander, Major Zack “Samson” Miller. He was awesome on our 6 hour flight, answered all our inane questions at the pre and post flight briefings. If memory serves me correctly, he’s only 28 years old, as is most of the crew.