1942.03.20 “Time to Use the Wings”
by Lucius Curtis “Lute” Pease, Jr. (1869 -1963)
16 x 18 in., crayon and ink on board
Coppola Collection
Pease was a cartoonist for the Newark Evening News from 1914 to 1954 and received the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. He was a miner in Alaska for 5 years before beginning a career in art. He was an illustrator for the Oregonian and famously interviewed Mark Twain. From his retirement in 1954 until his death in 1963, he devoted himself to fostering his skills as a painter of portraits and landscapes.
Before WWII, American military aviation existed as the Army Air Corps, a subservient branch of the U.S. Army. Airpower advocates like Brigadier General Billy Mitchell clashed with Army and Navy leadership over a centralized command for military aviation. The need for rapid expansion and centralized control during the war forced a change.
On June 20, 1941, the United States Army Air Forces was created, unifying all U.S. military aviation under a single commander. Before that, aviation was split between the Army Air Corps and the Navy, with years of rivalry and inefficiency. The Feeding Bowl of “Billions” reflects the massive wartime appropriations of 1940–41, when the U.S. was still officially neutral but funneling money into the defense buildup. Ordinary taxpayers and bond-buying citizens (“John Q. Public”) provided the fuel for this force. By the time this cartoon appeared, the USAAF had already been funded, structured, and trained; so now time to stop feeding and start fighting.
The time to act was early 1942: the Allies were reeling, the Philippines were falling, Britain was still enduring the Blitz aftermath, and Hitler had overrun much of Europe. Calls for the U.S. to unleash its newly funded and coordinated airpower were urgent. On April 18, 1942, the Doolittle Raid, more symbolic than strategic, finally showed US aircraft striking Japan, but only with Navy-launched bombers.
