Post going 'all the way" to spruce up famous jet

Since 1996, an F-4D Phantom jet has sat outside James H. Perkins American Legion Post No. 533 in Bastrop, Texas. The plane, which was part of the famed 8th Fighter Wing whose F-4 crews earned the nicknames "MiG killers" and "bridge busters” during the Vietnam War, has become a landmark to the city of approximately 7,200 residents, said Post 533 Finance Officer Dave Coker.

Facing a price tag of $20,000 to renovate the plane back to its original paint scheme of the Vietnam War, Post 533 found itself surrounded by community support. And so later this fall, the renovation will begin to restore the 42-year-old plane back to some of its original glory.

“That thing has been in front of our (post) for years, and it’s kind of a talked-about thing here in Bastrop,” Coker said. “Some of the (plane’s) former crew members and we got together talking and said ‘Let’s put it back in its original condition. Let’s show some pride in it.' We knew we had to repaint it anyway. So we said we’re not going to go halfway. We’re going all the way.”

The F-4D Phantom was stationed at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin before the base closed in 1993. The plane ended up outside of Post 533, where Coker said it has become somewhat of an institution in the community.

An August fundraiser and ongoing effort to help with the restoration has netted the post close to the price tag of the cost of painting the plane. Coker said he expects work to begin in October once the post gets the approval of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, which loaned the post the plane.

The Aug. 10 community fundraiser featured John “Tig” Tiegen – a survivor of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the American mission in Benghazi, Libya, that left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others dead – and brought in enough to cover most of the $20,000 needed to return the plane to its Vietnam-era camouflage colors of brown and green, with a black nose. Coker said the account set up at the bank also will allow for continued maintenance and upgrades to the jet, as well as to pay for some needed landscaping around the plane.

“(The community) knows this as kind of a landmark symbol,” Coker said, explaining the ability to raise the money the post needed. “The American Legion does good things here. And the public supports the veterans.”