F-106A 59-0105
Camp Blanding Museum, Starke FL
F-106A 59-0105 was dedicated on 10 Dec 2001 at the Florida ANG Heritage Exhibit, Camp Blanding Museum and Memorial Park, at Camp Blanding near Starke, FL. It was trucked to Camp Blanding, FL on 11 Mar 2001 for static display. Extracts from 125th FW, Florida Air National Guard News Article, Summer 2002 Eagle's Eye quarterly publication: Sitting atop its new home as the newest memorial at the Camp Blanding Museum, an F-106 Delta Dart rests upon a steel beam—forever ‘soaring’ through the sky. The renovated Cold War-era aircraft was positioned recently at the memorial site and is the centerpiece of the Florida Air National Guard Heritage exhibit dedicated to the men and women of the FANG—both past and present. The project represents three years of hard work by a self-proclaimed “Can Do” team made up of volunteers from the FLANG Retirees Association, the 202nd Red Horse Squadron, the Southeastern Area Defense Sector and the 125th Fighter Wing. “We decided that we’ve got a lot of people (in the retiree association) who worked on that aircraft,” said retired Brig. Gen. Donald E. Barnhart, former assistant adjutant general for air in Florida. “So, retired Master Sgt. Jack B. Stuart made the plea and there was about 15 retirees who said ‘yeah’ we can do that,” said Barnhart. Plans for the museum exhibit began in 1998 when the Camp Blanding Museum Association received permission from the United States Air Force Museum located at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio, to turn the aircraft into a static display. “One of the aircraft the FANG flew for the longest time was the F-106. It commemorated the Cold War-era and it seemed to be the perfect centerpiece,” said Barnhart. The team of volunteers located an F-106 ‘drone’ at Tyndall AFB, Fla., and in March 2001, began dismantling the aircraft. Once dismantled, it was loaded onto tractor-trailers and transported to Camp Blanding where it ultimately was placed at the memorial. The biggest challenge for the group of volunteers was taking an airplane that was built in 1959 and moving it 350 miles, said retired Lt. Col. Ernie L. Webster, another volunteer and former F-106 pilot for the FANG. “It’s quite a task,” said Webster. “We found that it was a much larger job than what we had anticipated.” After three years of hard work, Barnhart and his ‘Can Do’ team are both pleased and relieved that the ‘centerpiece’ of the project has finally been completed. The F-106 was selected as the centerpiece of the exhibit because of the critical role that it played in the “Cold War Era”.