The lost art of America's story pin-up girls on restored aircraft and on metal panels to sell as memorabilia for the past 20 years, he's had a lot of time to daydream about what it might have been like in the skies over Europe in 1944. "I often wish I could have been there," Velasco said. "There was a romantic feeling, a sense of innocence by today's standards. I put myself in their shoes. They had a mission, and everyone was gung-ho. And they missed home and the guys missed their girlfriends." B Y J U L I E S U M M E R S WA L K E R P H OT O G R A P H Y B Y C H R I S R O S E 66 | AOPA PILOT February PILOT January 2012 2020 FLY BY PHOTOGRAPHY I LIKE ARTIST GARY VELASCO'S VISION of a World War II dogfight: German pilot looks out his windshield to see an American bomber on his tail, but he's distracted by the vision of a scantily clad, half-naked woman on the nose of the U.S. aircraft. The distraction costs the Luftwaffe pilot precious seconds and he and his aircraft become another victory for the Americans as the war finally comes to an end. Fanciful? Maybe, but as Velasco has been hand painting