WWII-Era Fighter Plane Is Dream Realized for Vets’ Museum

Since its inception, there has been one design detail of Lewis County’s Veterans Memorial Museum that has gone unutilized — that is until now.

The tall, hangar-like ceiling that shelters a large swath of the museum’s extensive gallery was built to house an aircraft, a flying machine of war, suspended from the ceiling.

On Monday, a truck carrying an authentic WWII-era P-51D fighter arrived at the museum, reaching the end of its trip from Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. It was the result of several years of patiently waiting and a whole lot of lucky timing, said Chip Duncan, the museum’s director.

“It has been a very, very long journey, and it’s just a sense of real rewarding accomplishment,” said Duncan.

He explained the room inside the museum that will house the fighter was always intended to have some sort of aircraft. Originally, there were thoughts of a Huey helicopter, but those proved a little too hard to come by.

The building, despite its many exhibits and military items both inside and out, went without this particular piece. And then, somewhere around 2012, the museum found itself in a financial situation that allowed it to start looking for an aircraft.

Duncan explained that, while the official National Museum of the U.S. Air Force — the department of the Air Force that cares for all decommissioned aircraft — will donate items to qualified citizen organizations, the organization must pay for the transportation.

Not only that, the transporters have to come from a list of companies qualified to transport and assemble the craft.

“You can’t just say, ‘Well my brother’s got a semi, he can probably just go down and haul it,’” said Duncan.

The museum’s board discussed the kind of plane they wanted, and decided on an F-105, a Vietnam-era fighter-bomber. Duncan said it was a unique plane, with something of an “underdog” story because of the losses it experienced in wartime. It was the kind of plane that folks savvy in aircraft would be struck by when they drove by, he said. It’s also too large and heavy to hang from the ceiling.

During a conversation with Air Force Museum in late February 2018, Duncan learned there was an available F-105 at a spot in California. Duncan confirmed he wanted to get ahold of it — that plane arrived in Chehalis in July.

Then the person at the Air Force Museum asked if there was anything else Duncan wanted.

Duncan jokingly said he wanted a P-38 Lightning — another WWII-era fighter. It was a joke, he said, because he never expected such a plane would be available. He was told they couldn’t get him a P-38, but just minutes earlier, the Air Force Museum obtained a P-51.

“It’s kinda like going to a car dealership: ‘What car would you really like?’ ‘Well, a Porsche.’ ‘Don’t have a Porsche, but we have a Ferrari,’” said Duncan.

Duncan agreed, recognizing that the next caller to the Air Force Museum would almost certainly snatch the plane.

“Literally, it was just timing and luck, because people are on waiting lists for a long time looking for P-51s,” he said.

The plane’s been at Robins Air Force base in Georgia for about 25 years, before they decided to give it up. The actual plane’s history is a mystery, but Duncan noted it’s been painted up as the famous fighter Ferocious Frankie. It’s been de-militarized, so it’s been stripped of its ability to fly or wage any sort of war.

“The P-51 is probably one of the most iconic aircrafts of WWII,” he said, adding that the “D” in P-51D refers to the specific model, which came out in 1944.

“It was fast, maneuverable and a really great plane to fly. And was far superior than most of what the Germans were about to put up and the Japanese were able to put up in the air.”

Originally, it was set to arrive in Chehalis just after Thanksgiving, but weather conditions in other parts of the country delayed its arrival. It was pulled into town and to the museum — already disassembled — on Monday, in the hands of the company Worldwide Aircraft Recovery, based out of Bellevue, Nebraska.

“This building is really perfect for being able to hang the aircraft. The beam structure is totally more than adequate and the P-51 is just the perfect size to fit inside here,” said Marty Batura, with Worldwide Aircraft Recovery, on Tuesday.

The day before, he and Mike Wingrove — also with the company — brought the plane to the museum, cleaned it and brought the fuselage inside the gallery. On Tuesday, he said they would be bringing in the wing, and beginning the process of assembly and suspension — a process he estimated would take until Friday.

Batura said he has 23 years of experience under his belt of aircraft transportation, and rattled off several projects Worldwide Aircraft Recovery have pulled off. Among them, he said, was the transportation and assembly of the B-52 at the Museum of Flight in Seattle and the suspension of an SR-71 spy plane from the ceiling of the Science Museum of Virginia in downtown Richmond. It was the first time such a plane had been suspended, he said.

“It’s really a pleasure to get your hands in and take apart and put back together true pieces of history that have flown in combat, that have saved lives and also taken lives — but that’s what military is about, it’s about protecting our own,” said Batura.

Last year, he helped transport the F-105 to the museum. He said that’s when he first began talking with its administration about the P-51, and whether the job was feasible. Batura assured them that it was.

“It’s a real pleasure to work with this museum. There’s a lot of great people here. They’re really military-oriented, obviously, and they’re really passionate about it. To me, that’s what makes it really worth-while, is working with a museum that really appreciates history and appreciates what they’re getting and in turn, that gives me a big feeling of accomplishment in bringing their dream come true, so the public can see this,” he said.

The Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis has closed down its gallery while the plane is being assembled and will reopen Jan. 25.