In March, 1945, an FM-2 Navy Grumman fighter plane took off from the flight deck of the USS Petrof Bay on a strafing mission of the beaches of Okinawa. Fourteen years later, that same plane landed in a park in White Center, where local kids played on it for years.

The Navy had decommissioned that aircraft and donated it to the King County Parks Department in 1959. A gem to be treasured and a good reminder to the sons of the fathers who fought in that war.

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Within a week vandals had ripped the plane apart. It was a mess. But it was rescued quickly. Apparently some engaged citizens helped restore it. Kids were able to enjoy it until 1966 when the US Army came calling.

The brass at Ft Lawton needed the plane for an armed forces pageant promising to return it. Sadly, it never happened.

So what did happen to that plane?

From heroic battles in Okinawa to a storage facility in the King County bone yard at Juanita Beach, the plane sat thru 1969, rusting and deteriorating. It remained in limbo for a few years.

Harl V. Brackin, from the Pacific Northwest Aviation Historical Foundation, must have had his eye on this classic as he requested a transfer of the FM-2 to restore it at the Sand Point Naval Air Station. It was the early 70’s.

The FM-2 had fallen through a crack in the system for
a good deal of time until Brackin’s rescue. Navy aircraft are owned in perpetuity but can be “loaned” for a variety of good causes. Good causes
still need cash to gain traction. This Wildcat movement had no claws.

Due to lack of funds the Grumman again sat, but this time in a protected hangar at Fairchild Air Base in Spokane. It was 1979. Work began again later that year.

“It was one of the biggest undertakings”, said a project leader as they disassembled what remained of the aircraft. They found extensive corrosion. “It was a real basket case”, he added. The restoration crew found six gallons of water and sand in the engine. They filled 20 garbage cans with rocks, bird’s nests and other debris. The remnants of neglect and abuse.

The General Motors blue prints were not available so crews worked from intuition and basic engineering as well as photographs and film to restore it to original WWII condition. Work was not completed five years later when a request came from the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Long Island, NY. The Wildcat was on the move.

A five-year loan with a stipulation for completing the restoration was established in 1985. The FM-2 was driven across country that June. But deals are made to be broken.

Someone dropped the ball in New York. The plane was not restored. It returned in the fourth year to the newly created Museum of Flight at Paine Field in 1989.

Money, money, money... the aircraft sat, for lack of same, revving its engine in mock disgust at being pampered but never allowed to get back to the dance.

Still patient, the little Grumman, built in 1944 in a General Motors plant in Linden, N.J., was to gather dust at Paine Field while funds were sought for another nine years. It was 1998.

Enter Tom Cathcart, director of aircraft collections, who deemed the project worthy of completion. He found that 70% of the frame had to be rebuilt from scratch. Tom’s observations became determination as he led the final stages of the restoration.

For nearly 12 years he pushed forward, seeking parts and pieces. General Motors had stopped making the plane by late 1944 as newer faster planes were designed and built. Those in service would simply fly into the sunsets of their life at the bone yard or scrap heap. Only this one made it to a play field in White Center.

Now 85% complete, the MOF hopes to put the beautiful FM-2 Wildcat on display in the WWII gallery of the MOF’s J. Elroy McCaw Personal Courage Wing in 2012.

Making it all happen was a team of dedicated aircraft enthusiasts led by Cathcart. They include Senior Curator Dan Hagedorn and his assistant John Little, Perk Bingham, Sheree Van Berg, Barry Horner, Hank Puckett and Gary Lollis. Cathcart also thanked a group of volunteers, including Milt James, who pushed for the restoration to happen.