Original Item: Only One Available. VPB-121 was a Patrol Bombing Squadron of the U.S. Navy. The squadron was established as Patrol Squadron 19 (VP-19) on 1 October 1937, redesignated Patrol Squadron 43 (VP-43) on 1 July 1939, redesignated Patrol Squadron 81 (VP-81) on 1 July 1941, redesignated Patrol Bombing Squadron 121 (VPB-121) on 1 October 1944 and disestablished on 1 June 1946.

The sign was sent home from California to Massachusetts by Romuald N. Thabeault, who piloted one of the B29s that dropped the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima. We were not expecting that discovery when the name on the sign was researched!

Romuald N. "Buster" "Rom" Thabeault, was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts on May 3, 1916 the son of the late Adelard and Mary (Lamothe) Thabeault. He moved to the Aldenville section of Chicopee in 1925. He attempted the Assumption College in Worcester before graduating in 1939. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1942. He attended school in Hutchinson, Kansas and also attended school at the U.S. Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida where he flew in the Navy PBY's. He then went to Camp Kearny in North Island, California where he was named Plane Captain a Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer which was an American World War II and Korean War era patrol bomber of the United States Navy derived from the Consolidated B-24 Liberator.

The combat unit was then known as the V.P.B. 121, stationed in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, then to Midway, Eniwetok, Tinian, Sapian, Johnson, Kwajalein and finally Iwo Jima. He flew combat missions against Wake, Ponape and Japan. He received four Air medals, one being the Distinguished Flying Cross. He pilotted one of the planes that escorted the B29 that dropped the "A" Bomb on Hiroshima on August 5, 1945.

The sign appears to have been nailed to a wall and was removed, addressed and sent home by Thabeault. The center of the signs features kangaroo in boxing gloves holding a bomb in the left arms and binoculars in the other. There is a joey in the kangaroo pouch manning a machine gun. Beneath this image the unit designation VPB121 is painted.

The names and addresses on the left and right side of the sign is as follows:

FROM:

R. N. THABEAULT AMM 2/2
VPB121 - F.P.O.
SANFRANCISCO
CALIF

TO:

R. N. THABEAULT
21 DALE ST.
CHICOPEE FALLS
MASS.
(ALDENVILLE)

The wood is fragile and currently contained in a large plastic poster protector sleeve, but would look excellent professionally framed. The paint is faded but still easily discernible.

This is an exceptional piece of history that comes ready for further research and display!