Need help - 459FS P-38J plane number
 

Hi guys,

My friend Jack Cook sent me this photo from his remarkable collection.

It shows Lt. William G. Baumeister, Jr's 459th FS P-38J "Irish Lassie". Any ideas as to the plane-in-squadron number? Baumeister wasn't an ace, otherwise I could find the number easily in my refs.

For these 459th J-models with the dragon motif on the booms, low series numbers like "2" and "4", or even "12" were painted in white on the tail.

This is for my upcoming painting "Twin-tailed Dragons". I was going to show Walter Duke's Miss-V as the lead ship - till Jack sent me this beautiful picture (Thx again, Jack!).

Wade

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ster_459FS.jpg