About 20 years ago, Bob Vasser and his son, Lyle, built a replica of a P-47 Thunderbolt in honor of Lt. Bob Sweeney. Bob and Lyle’s hobby of building remote controlled airplanes saw them participating in shows throughout Missouri. We are honored to have been given this plane – thank you, Bob and Lyle.
Included in the photos below is a front-facing close up photo of the pilot, Bob Sweeney, which is installed in the replica plane. The replication of Bob was done by Lyle Vasser and the photo was sent to us by Tanya Vasser.
Sweeney flew 61 missions over Italy in WWII, receiving three Air Medals, the Presidential Unit Citation, American Campaign Medal, and the European-African-Middle Eastern Medal as part of the 85th Squadron the 79th Fighter Group. The 85th Squadron insignia was the Flying Skull which symbolized winged death and destruction to be inflicted on all enemies of the United States. Bob’s call sign was Dr. Rat – probably because his grandfather invented Poison Wheat.
This exhibit is in the Ingram Annex and is a must-see to view the details up close! We are open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 1:00 – 4:00 but close for the winter months at 4pm October 25.
Thank you to Bob Vasser and Lyle Vasser for this amazing donation!. And thank you to Dennis Weiseman for working with Bob on building the stand for the plane.
