The Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis received a Republic F-105 Thunderchief nicknamed “Desert Fox” on Wednesday morning.
The Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis received a Republic F-105 Thunderchief nicknamed the “Desert Fox.” This nose art rests under the left wing of the aircraft.
Chehalis’ Veterans Memorial Museum’s newest acquisition is officially called the “Republic F-105 Thunderchief,” but in 1983, it earned the nickname “Desert Fox.”
“It’s the only F-105 that was ever painted this way,” said Veterans Memorial Museum director Chip Duncan.
After nearly 20 years of attempts to acquire a large aircraft for display, the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis finally received the long-awaited piece this week.
“We saw this little interesting painting underneath where the wing would go,” Duncan said. “I was kind of confused. Low and behold, come to find out in 1983 — when this was transferred to one of its last stations — the crew chief painted this experimental desert camouflage on it and nicknamed her the ‘Desert Fox.’”
The Desert Fox served in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and was also flying combat missions during the USS Pueblo crisis in 1968. The plane was in service from 1963 until 1983. In 1984, it was flown to Travis Air Force Base in California.
“A couple of the model companies that make the plastic models of airplanes actually made this,” Duncan said. “It’s a semi-famous airplane (and) that’s the original nose art.”
Duncan learned early this year the museum would receive it.
“We have been trying to get a large airplane like this for 20 years,” Duncan said. “It was kind of the dream, but it was always an issue like most things of funding and timing. One of the things we had to do was just a mound of paperwork of certification from the United States Air Force just to have this item. They don’t just hand them out.”
Duncan said the F-105 has always been one of his favorite planes.
“It’s a big, heavy fighter bomber,” Duncan said. “It was designed back in the 1950s (and brought) into service during the Vietnam War early on. It had a lot of problems — 350, I believe, were lost to combat action. It was replaced by the F-4, but it’s a unique airplane and it’s different than an F-4, so I wanted to have something like that.”
Worldwide Aircraft Recovery, which is a company that transports aircrafts and performs all phases of the relocation process, delivered the plane Wednesday morning.
“It took us a couple of days to get up from California,” said Marty Batura, who is the president of the company. “Everything went relatively smoothly.”
Batura said it will take a couple days to assemble the aircraft.
“We have to put the wings on first and extend the landing gear,” Batura said. “Then you pick up the nose and pull the trailer out from underneath it and extend the nose gear. Then set it down and it will be sitting on its landing gear.”
Although Worldwide Aircraft Recovery will work over the next couple days to assemble the aircraft, it will stay in relatively the same spot it currently resides in.
