Growing up near Dayton, Ohio, I was always intrigued by rumors that extraterrestrials were stored on ice at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Turns out, the closest thing may be these surreal murals painted by German prisoners-of-war held in the base's dining hall during World War II. What inspired them? From Dayton Daily News:
The existing mural in Building 280, built in the 1943, was restored in the 1980s, he said. Dayton Art Institute experts have cleaned the painting as part of the preservation.
"A lot of people have conjecture on what this means," (Wright-Patterson cultural resources manager Paul) Woodruff said. "Some people think this is where the alien conspiracy theories began with the little green men at Wright-Patt. That's one story that likes to be told."
Another theory: Green goblin-like characters out of German folklore. And there's another for the wall of flame.
"One of the conjectures is possibly it's German culture up in flames – a statement of how they felt what was going on in the world at that point," he said.
