Another WWII fighter plane is going to be pulled out of Lake Michigan

[orbit]

I found an interesting article in today's Chicago Tribune.

A&T Recovery has found another Hellcat in Lake Michigan. They've raised her from 250' of water and towed her to Waukegan Harbor. They're gonna lift her out of the water at 10 Monday morning.

The pilot who flew her last is living in Georgia and recounted the story of the crash for the article.

Here's the link to the article.

I think this is the second or third WWII plane that's been pulled from Lake Michigan, at Waukegan Harbor, this year.

Here's a link to a photo gallery of the plane that was pulled out of Lake Michigan this past April.

Darn that I gotta work on Monday. Waukegan Harbor is 15 min. south of my house. It'd be pretty cool to see this plane on dry land after all these years.

[mongoose]

Pretty cool, Ken. Thanks for posting this.

[rangerider]

Pic of the two vets watching tell the story there.

[ms_tapestry]

Originally Posted by rangerider

Pic of the two vets watching tell the story there.

I agree. . .what a great story! I'd love to see it in person too!

[d j]

I am SOOOOOO tempted to play hookey Monday just to go see that. What do ya say Ken?

[Big Cheese]

The athletic fields of the high school I work at are built on an old NIKE missile base. We inherited the land from the department of defense and had to completely rehab it. There were 3 long runways for training missions in addition to of the missile bunkers. There was a small FAA Vortec installation there which used to sit where my football stadium is now. The FAA built a newer larger Vortec there next to our stadium. People always ask me what it is and I tell them it's a welcome mat for aliens. Damn fools believe me too. I got to tour the bunkers and control rooms before they were demolished. When I was doing some initial layout of the facility with the architects, we found a long wooden platform with a railroad kind of track running down the middle of it in the bushes. We did some research and learned that it was a simulated carrier deck and that the center track was part of the catapult.
G.W. Bush trained there and it was briefly considered to name the school after him and to make the mascot of the school the "Aviators".
I have a piece of the carrier deck and catapult preserved. I don't know what the metal used for the catapult is, it was not rusted and we played hell cutting a 3' section out of it. Tough stuff.
We are about 10 miles due west of Waukegan and the Great Lakes Naval base.
Most of those Navy pilots were in and out of our facility regularly.

http://www.vernonhills.org/community...ticComplex.asp

[orbit]

Originally Posted by d j

I am SOOOOOO tempted to play hookey Monday just to go see that. What do ya say Ken?

Man, I don't know. Work's winding to a close and I'm afraid I'm gonna have plenty of unwanted time off in the near future.

Let me ponder a bit.

[d j]

I hear ya, Ken. I really need to be at work on Monday also.

[racindude]

Very cool, guess I know where I will be Monday morning, getting us some pics.

[d j]

Originally Posted by racindude

Very cool, guess I know where I will be Monday morning, getting us some pics.

Cool, thanks Dave. We'll need a full report.

[orbit]

Originally Posted by racindude

Very cool, guess I know where I will be Monday morning, getting us some pics.

Hey, Dave, thanks!

Wish I could be there.

I may go to the harbor tomorrow to see what I can see.

[JDsCycleWorks]

Very cool,looking forward to the pics.

[Scabbydoo]

The WWII fighters/fighter-bombers are still my favorites.

[MegaGlide]

Cool stuff.
I'll be waiting for the pics, too!

[orbit]

Just got back from the harbor, couldn't see much.

Looks like they're gonna pull the plane out of the water at Larsen Marine and set it on a barge there. There's a giant crane poised for action at Larsen's yard.

I'm not sure if'n anyone will be able to get in Larsen's yard tomorrow (the yard was open today), but one may be able to see stuff happening from the Waukegan Yacht Club parking lot.