I just learned about this mission on Saturday, while visiting the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, CA. They have small display with pictures, and the audio from the mission.
I often think of NASA as exceptionally serious people, but it never seems to stop them from adding a bit of humor and fun to their work.
Well Apollo 10 was the last time NASA let the astronauts name the CM and LM, precisely because they named it Snoopy. I think it is well known that in general the early astronauts had a pretty good sense of humor (along with balls of steel), but ground control, not so much.
WW2 air crews named and painted their airplanes crazy fun things. There were some complaints about it, but the brass had enough sense to let the crews do what they wanted. It was a way for them to take a bit of the edge off of the terrible strain they were under. (Very high death rates.)
My dad was a bit superstitious, all his combat rides were named "Round Trip Ticket". It worked :-)
They're the claimed enemy airplanes shot down. Some of those kills were shared with other airplanes. There were several gunners on the B-17, so the number there represents all of their work.
The painted bombs above it represent the number of combat missions.
My father was the navigator, which was up front. His gun pointed out the side, which made for rather difficult deflection shots. He said the favored attack by the Luftwaffe was head on, which made deflection shots as they passed that much harder. The nose of the B-17 is a plexiglass hemisphere, and he could see the Me-109's firing straight at them, and wondered how they could miss. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, no armor.
Are you sure? NASA still seems to use Snoopy in an official capacity (e.g. the Silver Snoopy award). Starting in the 80s they even started sending every Silver Snoopy pin up into orbit before it was given to the recipient.
There was a great relationship between Charles Schulz, and NASA, which showed up in some odd places. There's an award, the Silver Snoopy, that is presented by astronauts to non-management employees that have significantly contributed to human space flight.
On Apple TV there is a 9 minute documentary about this relationship and specifically Apollo 10. It aims to answer the question: was Snoopy a secret astronaut?
I often think of NASA as exceptionally serious people, but it never seems to stop them from adding a bit of humor and fun to their work.
https://schulzmuseum.org/