Bob Stevens! His name came to me on the way home.
Here's a short bio I found:
"Bob Stevens (1923 - 1994)
When I first read Dick Starks' manuscript of You Want to Build and Fly a WHAT? I had two reactions:
(1) I wanted to publish this book.
(2) I wanted Bob Stevens to illustrate it.
Bob was, and is, the premier aviation cartoonist. His cartoon series "There I Was..." ran for over 25 years in AIR FORCE magazine. On the civilian side, his marvelously funny cartoons graced the pages of Professional Pilot, Private Pilot, and KITPLANES magazines, as well as a number of books. His honors include four Lincoln Day awards, five National Freedom Foundation honor medals, and two Pulitzer nominations.
Bob had a lot of flying experience to draw on, so to speak. After being commissioned as an Air Corps pilot in 1943, he flew nearly every WWII plane in the U.S. arsenal and later went on to clock a world speed record of 711.75 mph in an F86-A jet.
When I asked Bob to illustrate this book, he was fighting cancer and told me that he believed this would be his last professional job. I am so glad that he was willing and able to add his incomparable touch to the book, and so sorry that his prophecy turned out to be true."
I have two books, apparently there are more, all out of print according to Amazon.com
They list:
Army Air Force Lyrics : A Collection of Ww II U.S. Army Air Force Marching Songs, Poems, and Parodies to Popular Songs of the Period and the Past
If You Read Me, Rock the Tower
by Bob Stevens.
Mayday, Mayday, Mayday! : Spin Instructions Please
by Bob Stevens.
Prop wash : a fractured glossary of aviation terms
by Bob Stevens.
There I was-- 25 years
by Bob Stevens.
Below are the two I have; that cartoon is out of one of them. I found this on a University of Michigan site, so perhaps the library reference numbers might work at your home town library.
"There I Was, Flat On My Back / by Bob Stevens. -- Fallbrook,
CA : Aero Publishers, 1975. -- 224 p. : chiefly ill.
Stevens, Bob, 1923- II. More There I Was. Call no.:
D745.2.S773 1975
