Posted on January 3, 2016
Brig. General , Edwin L. Little was born in North Poultney, Vermont in 1918. He was the son of Charles Little and Jessie Streeter and thoughout his life he never knew that his mother was a direct descendant of Captain Remember Baker…..the “boisterous and highly combative red head” who, along with cousins, Seth Warner and Ethan Allen, organized The Green Mountain Boys! General Little is the 4th great grandson of Baker through Baker’s daughter Demaris who married Joab Streeter.
General Little joined the Air Corps in 1942 and served in Europe as a B-17 pilot, eventually completing 25 missions and earning the Air Force’s highest medal for combat in flight…..The Distinguished Flying Cross. The first 6 of his missions were as co-pilot on another B-17. He received his own plane and designed the nose art to be placed upon it. He named it the “Green Mountain Rambler” , (the only World War II Air Force bomber to be named for the state of Vermont ) and ironically, the cartoonish character of the “mountain boy” was completed with red hair! Perhaps Gen. Little had some “cosmic” knowledge that he was descended from the “red haired giant”, Remember Baker!
The image is an authentic reproduction of the “nose art” on Little’s B-17. The artwork was completed by an artist who specializes in just such projects and reproduces the images on aircraft aluminum. The 19 “bomb symbols” in the upper right were also on the original aircraft…..symbolizing the 19 successful missions the “Green Mountain Rambler” completed.