1st Lt John A Johns - 11x14" Print

Artwork by Don Henderson. Vector illustration of WWII artist/warrior, U.S. Army Corps pilot, 1st Lt John A. Johns.  To those of us who know him, he is a legendary artist and illustrator. When I was a student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, he was the President of the school. We all knew John Johns was a famous artist, but what we didn't know was that as a young man, not much older than us at the time, he was a combat pilot with the 22nd Bomb Squadron of the 341st Bombardment Group of the 14th Air Force, the world famous "Flying Tigers". Johns flew B-25 Mitchell Medium Bombers over some of the most dangerous air space on the planet, the "CBI" (China, Burma, India Theater of Operations). Known as "Flying the Hump" these brave air crews flew out of crude airstrips in India, up over the Himalayas and on into China. As if that wasn't enough, after all that, they had to bomb the Japanese and then fly back over the same perilous route. The CBI is littered with the wreckage and remains of