08/28/2026
Nose art on American military aircraft mostly died out after the Second World War. Betty Grable on the nose of a bomber, the pin-ups on B-17s and B-24s. It never disappeared entirely, but it stopped being ordinary.
On September 8, 2004, the 134th Air Refueling Wing brought it back for one airplane.
At McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base in Knoxville, they unveiled nose art on a KC-135 Stratotanker: Dolly Parton in stars and stripes against an American flag, with "For God and Country" beneath her, the title of the patriotic album she had released the previous Veterans Day. They named the aircraft Miss Dolly.
She was there. She signed the artwork, wore a matching red, white and blue outfit, and sang for the airmen and their families. She said afterward that she felt like those girls in World War Two. She had put her name on just about everything by then, she said, but never anything this fun or this big.
The 134th is Knoxville's own wing. Their tankers sit at the airport closest to the mountains where she grew up.
Yesterday, the day she died, one of their KC-135s flew a long mission and came home. Its radio callsign was DOLLY91.
The 134th's normal callsign is SODA. It has been for years.
