Army & Navy: Local Color

The planes the Japs bombed on Hickam Field at Pearl Harbor wore an identifying emblem that had marked U.S. warplanes since World War I, and was as familiar to air-minded Americans as the national flag: a white star superimposed on a circular blue background and carrying a red disc in its center.

The early weeks of war proved that the traditional emblem had a bad drawback: from certain angles on the wing of a plane diving or turning in the sun, the red heart of the star could be confused with Japan’s plane marking—a large red disc (known to U.S. flyers as “the meatball”). Trigger-nervous gunners occasionally fired on planes that turned out to be American. So the red circle was painted out, leaving a plain white star.

When U.S. airmen began to operate on a large scale in Europe and Africa, the star was sometimes mistaken for Ger many’s black cross edged with white. Early in July the U.S. emblem was redesigned to incorporate two white rectangles, one on either side of the star, with a narrow red border enclosing the whole device (TIME, July 19). Even at great distances this arrangement gave the appearance of a long white band, easily distinguishable from the German emblem. Everyone relaxed and got on with the war.

Last week the War Department sadly admitted that the emblem was still not right: the red border was picking up reflections of light and looking Japlike again. Out went orders for the third rejiggering, and on airfields and carriers all around the world, mechanics reached for the paint pots, started changing the border to blue.