By Randy Malmstrom
Since his childhood, Randy Malmstrom has had a passion for aviation history and historic military aircraft in particular. He has a particular penchant for documenting specific airframes with a highly detailed series of walk-around images and an in-depth exploration of their history, which have proved to be popular with many of those who have seen them, and we thought our readers would be equally fascinated too. This installment of Randy’s Warbird Profiles takes a look at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum‘s Republic F-84F Thunderstreak, USAF s/n 51-9522.
This particular aircraft was built as an F-84F-40-GK by General Motors-Fisher Body at Kansas City, KS (“GK” was the General Motors designation once it had been awarded a contract to build the Thunderstreak beginning in 1952) and delivered to the 508th Strategic Fighter Wing at Turner Air Force Base near Albany, GA by 1955. In 1957, it was transferred to various U.S Air National Guard units, the last being the 132nd Wing of the Iowa Air National Guard.
Beginning in 1971, it was with the aviation mechanic’s school at Hawkeye Institute of Technology in Waterloo, IA (it had been painted in the markings of a U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration team aircraft). It was acquired by a Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum via the GSA Federal Surplus program. Restoration was done by the Evergreen team in 2009 at Marana, AZ before being shipped to the McMinnville, OR museum. I understand that U.S. Air Force fire trucks receive the same bright green coating of what is or is a replacement for Zinc Chromate.
It is painted with the markings of aircraft s/n 52-6877, FS-877 of the U.S. 81st Fighter-Bomber Group (last assigned to RAF Bentwaters in Suffolk, England) and in honor of Vietnam veteran and former Oregon congressman Dennis A. “Denny” Smith (son of Del Smith, founder of the Evergreen empire and with which my dad had an office down the hall when dad was selling commercial/industrial helicopter services worldwide) who was assigned to fly the F-84F out of McDill Air Force Base in Florida with the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing.
He transitioned to the F-4C Phantom II in 1964 and the unit was sent to Cam Rahn Bay, South Vietnam where Smith would fly 180 combat missions in the F-4C over two years flying combat air patrol and interdiction over Vietnam and Laos. He was awarded the Air Medal with Six Oak Leaf Clusters and was honorably discharged in 1967. He was a member of the museum’s board of directors and in 2009, he was elected into the museum’s Aviation Hall of Honor.
It has the name “Marilyn” in honor of Marilyn Monroe, who posed on the wing of an F-84G version. As may be well known, prior to her movie career Marilyn Monroe, né Norma Jean Baker, worked on Radioplane OQ-19 drones in Van Nuys, CA.
About the author
Randy Malmstrom grew up in a family steeped in aviation culture. His father, Bob, was still a cadet in training with the USAAF at the end of WWII, but did serve in Germany during the U.S. occupation in the immediate post-war period, where he had the opportunity to fly in a wide variety of types which flew in WWII. After returning to the States, Bob became a multi-engine aircraft sales manager and as such flew a wide variety of aircraft; Randy frequently accompanied him on these flights. Furthermore, Randy’s cousin, Einar Axel Malmstrom flew P-47 Thunderbolts with the 356th FG from RAF Martlesham Heath. He was commanding this unit at the time he was shot down over France on April 24th, 1944, spending the rest of the war as a prisoner of war. Following his repatriation at war’s end, Einar continued his military service, attaining the rank of Colonel. He was serving as Deputy Wing Commander of the 407th Strategic Fighter Wing at Great Falls AFB, MT at the time of his death in a T-33 training accident on August 21, 1954. The base was renamed in his honor in October 1955 and continues to serve in the present USAF as home to the 341st Missile Wing. Randy’s innate interest in history in general, and aviation history in particular, plus his educational background and passion for WWII warbirds, led him down his current path of capturing detailed aircraft walk-around photos and in-depth airframe histories, recording a precise description of a particular aircraft in all aspects.
