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Hi Dean,

When war was declared in Europe, US military aircraft established a neutrality patrol off the Eastern Seaboard. The aircraft carried 4 wing insignia, and Army aircraft carried red/white/blue rudder stripes, but there were no fuselage insignia. The lessen the chances of being fired on by the warring parties, a large star was added to either side of the forward fuselage. Since these were applied only to aircraft in Neutrality Patrol units (predominiantly Navy), they were called Neutrality Stars. Later, when aft fuselage insignia were added to all camouflaged combat aircraft, some of the earlier patrol planes ended up with two stars on the nose and two more on the aft fuselage.

SOCs and OS2Us of the Atlantic Fleet (and its predecessors) were considered part of the Neutrality Patrol and also carried the forward fuselage stars.

Cheers,



Dana
Cheers,