The following article was sent out in the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Organization newsletter this week. It states that an F-105 previously on display at Lackland is on its way to Illinois as a memorial for the man who once piloted that tail number in Vietnam.
I haven't yet located the tail number...when I do, I'll post a shot of it from when I photographed the Lackland Thuds in December '05.
BY WALLY SPIERS
News-Democrat
Clark Wiens made a promise to his dying brother-in-law that he expects will be fulfilled Saturday in Centralia.
Wiens promised the late Lt. Col. Bill Pachura he would make sure the airplane that Pachura flew in Vietnam would go on permanent display in Centralia's Fairview Park.
Pachura, who died in November 2002, was a 1951 graduate of Carlyle High School. He flew a F-105 Thunderchief named Red River Queen on more than 100 bombing missions over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos with the 357th Tactical Fighter Squadron in 1968.
He earned two Distinguished Flying Crosses during his service.
The F-105 joins a T-33 Shooting Star, also flown by Pachura, that has been on display in the park since 1967, said Garrett Anderson, community development director for Centralia.
"It's kind of a neat human interest story," Anderson said. "We have two planes and he flew both of them."
Wiens never claimed Centralia as home, and Anderson said he doesn't know why the T-33 first came to the park. But Pachura probably just wanted his other plane to be near his first.
Anderson said that after flight school graduation, Pachura listed Sandoval as his hometown. Sandoval is a small town north of Centralia.
[/b]Wiens found the retired F-105 at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, where it had been used for security training.[/b]
Wiens said Pachura got to see his old plane at Lackland on Memorial Day 2002, and seemed energized at seeing his grandchildren crawling all over it.
After a stop in Wiens' hometown of Tulsa, Okla., for a weekend of display, the airplane arrived in Centralia this week in pieces on a couple of trucks.
It now is re-assembled and on display along Illinois 161, which goes by the park, Anderson said.
Dedication activities kick off with a VFW fish fry starting at 5 p.m.
Friday. A documentary about the plane will be shown at 7:30 p.m. at the Centralia Band Shell behind the library at 515 E. Broadway. At 8 p.m., the Hollywood action movie "Top Gun" will be shown.
Starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, a parade will march down Broadway. The Okaw Valley Barbershop Chorus will perform at 10 a.m., and the dedication ceremony will start at 11 a.m.
Speakers at the ceremony will include Wiens, Alex Johnson, who was a lifelong friend of Pachura since high school, and U.S. Army Lt. Col. Keith Robbins from Scott Air Force base.
For more information you can visit the Centralia Web site at
www.cityofcentralia.org
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Aerial Visuals - Location Dossier - Fairview Park