VMTB-242 Bugs Bunny

Marine Torpedo Bombing Squadron 242 (VMTB-242), later the "Bats" · USMC · 1943-1945

Commissioned 1 July 1943 at MCAS El Centro, California, VMTB-242 flew the TBM Avenger and wanted an insignia to match its swagger. Over drinks at the officers' club the pilots settled on Bugs Bunny, and squadron aviator Frank Moses talked Warner Bros. producer Leon Schlesinger into having Chuck Jones and Tex Avery draw it gratis — a cocky rabbit, carrot in hand, riding a live torpedo to the target. The squadron carried the design on flight jackets and fuselages through the Northern Solomons, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima, where it came ashore on D+17 and flew anti-submarine patrols until the war's end. It was never officially approved in Washington; the squadron deactivated at San Diego on 23 November 1945, and the design outlived the paperwork.