12/15/2017. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "As war became imminent and a reality, the USA as a whole came together in support of efforts in morality and in every aspect of sustaining material to the fronts. Walt Disney and company became one of the greatest contributors of WWII. With the help of his artists utilizing his familiar cartoon creations, Disney produced war training films, insignia, movie trailer shorts in support of the war and poster ad campaigns to name a few. This led to the hiring of a fulltime staff devoted to creating insignia for the war department.
Fortunately for the Lockheed Vega plant, the Disney studios was right next door in Burbank and whenever the artist had free time, he would stop by and paint cartoon characters on the noses and fuselages of various planes that came off the assembly line. In this case, PV-1 Venturas were being built and the bulk of the characters were Donald Duck and friends.
Occasionally a new character was created. One such Toon was Strato-Sam, a Lockheed worker that always had a pithy slogan against the axis. Soon alter came Kid Vega, an eager young naval ensign. Several of the known PV-1 squadrons that had Disney art were VP-131, VP-45, VP-17 and VP-30. The Donald Duck insignia is seen here behind the fuselage star."
