This Article About the Wildcat Restoration and Reunion of Squadron VC-93 Appears in a Recent Issue of the Museum Newsletter

The text of the article:

RESTORING HISTORY THE WIZARDS OF THE WORKSHOP Pilots of VC-93 Reunite with One of Their Own Last September, former members of U.S. Navy Composite Squadron VC-93 visited the Museum of Flight Restoration Center to be reunited after more than fifty years with one of their aircraft, an FM-2 Wildcat, Navy Bureau of Aeronautics No. 74512. VC-93, a mixed squadron of Wildcats and TBM Avengers, flew from the escort carrier USS Petrof Bay in support of the invasion of Okinawa in March, April, and May of 1945. Wildcat 74512 was one of the aircraft the squadron flew during the historic battle, which was the last land battle of World War II.

Cover of May/June issue of the Museum of Flight News - Supplement to Flight Journal Magazine

According to Robert H. Allison, one of the VC-93 Wildcat pilots, the Museum's airplane was most likely flown several times in combat by each of the squadron's pilots.

BuAer 74512 was accepted by the Navy on December 27, 1944, at the General Motors Eastern Aircraft Division plant in Linden, New Jersey. The Wildcat was delivered to the Navy on December 29th and flown first to NAS Trenton, New Jersey, and then on to San Diego, from where it was shipped to Guam. In early March, 74512 joined VC-93 aboard the Petrof Bay (built at the Henry J. Kaiser Shipyard in Vancouver, Washington), which then steamed west toward Okinawa and began combat operations.

The story and photo form page 5 of the newsletter. The caption reads: Former VC-93 Ensign Robert H. Allison stands in front of Wildcat 74512 holding a wartime photograph of himself piloting a sister ship over Okinawa. (Note. Actually, the aircraft in the photo may in fact be Aircraft 74512 rather than a sister ship. To date, the aircraft markings have not been corrilated of the bureau numbers so Number 20, seen here, may be 74512. The original of this picture can be seen on page 2 of this restoration section.)

The records of 74512 show that it was flown from the Petrof Bay to Guam in late May 1945 and put into storage. At that time, VC-93 left the Petrof Bay and boarded the USS Steamer Bay to perform shipping interdiction missions in the Western Pacific. In August 1945, the Steamer Bay returned to San Diego, where VC-93 was decommissioned. In September 1945, Wildcat 74512 was stricken from the active record. It appears to have been picked up from Guam in the autumn of 1945 and brought to Tacoma, Washington, by one of the seventeen escort carriers then assigned to the Tacoma Branch,19th Fleet. In 1959, the commandant of the Tacoma Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Training Center gave 74512 to the King County Parks and Recreation Department. The aircraft was placed in a playground in White Center, south of Seattle.

There the Wildcat remained, with children clambering all over it, until 1970, when the aircraft was given to the Museum. By that time, the fighter had deteriorated greatly due to weather and vandalism. Over the next twenty-five years, several restoration efforts were made, but none addressed the internal structural damage in a "per the blueprint" manner.

In 1998, Museum restorer Milt James and his crew of dedicated volunteers undertook to return the aircraft to factory-rollout condition. As of this past winter, the crew had painstakingly completed the aft fuselage structure and systems and had begun restoration of the cockpit. They plan to complete the project in time for the Wildcat to join other World War II aircraft from the Champlin Fighter Collection in the Museum's future military wing.

The FM-2 will be repainted in its wartime VC-93 livery: glossy dark sea-blue exterior with white four-leaf clovers on both sides of the fin and rudder, as well as on top of the starboard and bottom of the port wings. The fuselage and wings will bear standard stars and bars. Volunteers continue to research the history of 74512, hoping to uncover its actual squadron aircraft number.

To view the restoration efforts on the Wildcat and other historic aircraft, visit the Museum's Restoration Center, open free of charge 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday, at Paine Field in Everett.