Aircraft was originally assigned to 492nd Bomb Group with associated black diagonal tail stripes. After conversion of the 492nd to a "Carpet Bagger" unit, 42-95264 was transferred to the 491st BG and further assigned to the 853rd Bomb Squadron with tail code of -I and a simple nose art of a standing girl.



It was known as a hard luck ship when assigned to the Rice crew in early 1945. In fact, it had aborted a mission and was in Belgium when assigned to the crew. Lieutenants Rice and Melaun and Tech Sergeant Dwight Hoff went to fetch it home. LT Rice requested a new callsign of -V for Victory and to replace the nose art, both of which were approved by Operations Officer Major Raymond Litton. The new nose art was painted by LT Bill Melaun, who after the war became a commercial artist and master engraver.