Texas Legion post closing in on F-4D Phantom renovation

After a successful fundraising effort, an F-4D Phantom located outside of James H. Perkins American Legion Post 533 in Bastrop, Texas, is on the cusp of a completely new paint job that takes the plane back to its original Vietnam War camouflage paint scheme.

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. It’s sat outside of Post 533 since 1996; an August fundraiser and continued support from the community and others allowed the post to pay close to $20,000 for DLC Aircraft Preservation Services to paint the plane and add decals to it.

Painting began this fall, and all but the underbelly has been completed. Post 533 Finance Officer Dave Coker said the decals will be added to the plane and some landscaping around it completed prior to a Nov. 4 dedication ceremony.

“Right now we’re getting kind of antsy because we’re coming to the finish,” Coker said. “We’ve still got some touch-up stuff to do, and I’ve got some plaques to award to the (donors). It’s like anything: You get close to it and start wondering what the heck’s going to go wrong.”

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. And since the painting got underway, it’s attracted even more attention.

“We’ve already gotten a lot of comments,” Coker said. “We had a gentleman going through, I believe to New Mexico, who saw it. He came in here, I talked to him about it, and he wrote a check for $100 and said ‘that thing looks great.’

“We’re getting that. People are stopping by, taking pictures. It’s actually gotten us more members. The whole city, everybody just talks about it. We’re real happy about this.”