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Born in September 1920, Cecil Lippard graduated from Bradenton High School in June 1939. After enlistment in the USAAC, Lippard qualified as an Aerial Gunner at the Las Vegas Training Center. He was initially assigned to 44th Bomb Group but received reassigment to 344th Bomb Sqn of 98th Bomb Group (The Pyramidiers) on 26th March 1942 and deployed to Libya with that unit. A talented artist and cartoonist, as well as an accomplished photographer, Cecil Lippard was soon in demand to embellish several of the 98BG's original B24D's. His artistic talent was put to work initially on 344BS Liberators and, later, also a number of 343BS ships. Although some of his early nose arts are, perhaps, unsophisticated by later standards, Lippard created some memorable images whilst working under extremely harsh and difficult conditions in the Libyan desert and with very limited materials.
As a gunner, Lippard flew many combat missions to targets such as Naples and Tripoli in "Little Chief, Big Dog" and "Hail Columbia" -- both of which he painted, although the latter aircraft was later repainted with the same title and different graphic artwork before participating in the famous Ploesti low level raid on 1st August 1943. Sgt Cecil Lippard was ultimately listed as Missing in Action on 19th January 1943 in "Alice the Goon" #786-C.

© Ray Bowden