Like a mirror into the past, cover art commissioned for the 2002 User Friendly Phone Book accurately captures a moment in Lake Charles aviation history. Stan Stokes, aviation artist, painted “Training Flight At Gerstner Field” to commemorate the WWI fighter pilot school in operation southeast of Lake Charles from 1917 through 1920. His composition features a Handley-Page 0/400 Bomber in flight over Gerstner Field and a Curtiss JN-4 Jenny Trainer preparing for take off. The little Curtiss Jenny was the principal U.S. Army trainer for the WWI years. It is best remembered as the airplane used for barnstorming and air circuses of the 1920s. Gerstner Field graduated 499 pilots during WWI. It was the first military airfield in Louisiana and, at its peak, housed over 2,000 military cadets, service personnel and civilian workers. Today an historic marker and concrete building foundations are all that remain of Gerstner Field.

Stan Stokes has taken his passion for flying and aircraft and combined it with his artistic talent to become one of the world’s foremost aviation artists. His attention to detail, atmosphere and color enable Stokes to achieve three-dimensional effects, resulting in extraordinary portrayal of historic and modern aircraft. His research for authenticity includes flying Mustangs, Corsairs, Warhawks and a Blue Angel F/A-18. He has worked with many heroes of flight, including Chuck Yeager, General Jimmie Doolittle and Pappy Boyington.