Freedom of Flight Volunteers Celebrate Restoration of T-33 Jet Trainer

Dozens of people, including volunteers at the Freedom of Flight Museum, city officials and veterans, gathered to mark completion of the restoration of an old U.S. Air Force jet trainer in preparation for its eventual move to a new home.

The T-33 has been in a hangar at the Joplin Regional Airport for more than three years having rust spots patched and getting a new paint job in a restoration effort led by Freedom of Flight Museum Board President Darryl Coit and Museum Curator Ernie Trumbly.

U.S. Air Force Veteran and former state Rep. Sam Gaskill, 94, was among the 50 or so people on hand to celebrate the restoration with a ribbon cutting.

Coit said the parking spot on the concrete just outside the former Joplin Regional Airport Terminal is a temporary stop for the plane, which is headed to a more prominent display near the south entrance to the airport.

“We have big plans for it,” Coit said. “This is just the first step to a bigger plan to put in what we call a veterans honor park out at the entrance to the airport on Highway 171. What we'll have out there is this airplane on a pedestal in that area just east of the road into the airport off of 171. And around the pedestal there will be a block wall and on the wall will be ceramic tiles for pictures of veterans.”

Coit said veterans of all branches of the service will be honored and people will be able to use their smart phones to view short videos about each veteran.

“So from there we get the information about the veterans and we do a little video of them,” Coit said. “If they're still with us we put them in the video. If they're not, we’ll still do a little video and it tells all about what they did. There will be a QR code on the tile that people can click when they're at the park and see what grandpa or an uncle did in the service.”

Gaskill, a veteran fighter pilot in Vietnam, took center stage at the event. He said he flew airplanes just like this T-33 while training to be a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. He served in the Air Force from 1955-1979 and flew a number of different planes, including transport planes before piloting the McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom fighter plane during combat missions in Vietnam.

“This jet here, this type, basically is what gave me the jet time to qualify and get to the F-4,” Gaskill said. “I spent about five or six months at Laredo, Texas, flying this kind of jet mostly. The T-33 is derived from the first jet the U.S. used in combat, the F-80 Shooting Star, which shot down MIGs in Korea. They basically added a plug and lengthened the fuselage a couple of feet to fit a second pilot seat in it.”

Jason Gaskill, Sam Gaskill's newphew, who bought the airplane at an auction in Oregon back in 2013, said he admired the restoration work that Coit and Trumbly did.

“I think it’s wonderful, 10 times better than I thought it would be,” Jason Gaskill said. “I had something in my mind about what it would look like and they truly hit it out of the park. Ernie and Darryl really worked hard and they got the people scheduled in here and got the work done and it's just incredible.”

All four men said they hoped the plane would attract attention to the Freedom of Flight Museum and the treasures it displays in the old Joplin Airport terminal.

"I think it's tremendous just to have this out here at this airport in this condition,” Sam Gaskill said. "They remodeled it, rehabilitated it and, yeah, I'm proud to see it here as an Air Force display. Hopefully, that'll attract more people here to see the museums. It's spectacular museum. I’d sure encourage everyone to go in there. This museum will inspire kids to start flying and join the Civil Air Patrol.”

The Freedom of Flight Museum is open from 2-5 p.m. Thursday-Saturday at the old terminal at 5501 Dennis Weaver Drive, Webb City.

More information about the Freedom of Flight Museum can be found on the museum website, https://freedomofflightmuseum.org/about-us/.

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