flown by Lt. Alexander Vraciu, VF-6, USS Intrepid, February 1944

Lt. Vraciu destroyed his first enemy aircraft on October 5th, 1943, when he spotted Japanese Zero, pursued it all the way to the Wake Island where it landed and Vraciu destroyed it. He repeated his success by shooting down the G4M Betty bomber (on November 20th, 1943). When the unit was re-assigned to USS Intrepid (CV-11) in the end of January 1944, Lt. Vraciu shot down three G4M Betty bombers and on February 17th, 1944 four Japanese fighters above Truk (3x A6M Zero and 1x A6M2-N Rufe). F6F-3 aircraft, in which Lt. Vraciu was photographed, showing 9 kills of the Japanese planes, sports the standard camouflage introduced as of January 5th, 1943. Number 19 was spray-painted through a stencil rather sloppily held by the painter.

flown by Lt. Alexander Vraciu, VF-16, USS Lexington, June 1944

Having finished his first tour of duty with VF-6, Lt. Vraciu declined to return to the USA and on his own request dated February 27th, 1944, was assigned to VF-16 aboard USS Lexington (CV-16). During his service with this unit he was credited with further 10 kills of the Japanese aircraft. His best day was June 19th, 1944, when during the Battle of the Philippine Sea (thanks to the enormous number of victories over the Japanese airplanes also known as The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot) he claimed 6 Japanese D4Y Judy dive bombers shot down in the mere 8 minutes. Vraciu’s plane „White 32" is camouflaged in the same paint colors as his Hellcat „White 19". There is a noticeable overpainting of the previous marking, including the stencils, right under the fuselage number. The current pilot’s score is visible under the cockpit besides the VF-16 badge.