Chennault unites vet, jet: ' I flew that airplane'

It’s been 44 years since Sonny Kifer has sat in the cockpit of an A-7B Corsair II, but he can still recognize it at a quick glance.

Kifer was a Navy pilot in the Vietnam War, serving on an aircraft carrier about 90 miles offshore. Most of his missions involved flights just south of the DMZ (demilitarized zone) en route to bombing runs in Laos. He flew 18 of those missions in the attack squadron VA-93, still emblazoned on the Corsair.

“They had a picture of it flying over the (USS) Midway in ’71 and I asked if I could see it,” Kifer said. “They showed me the picture and it had VA-93 written on it, and I said, ‘I guarantee you I flew that airplane.’ They said, ‘No way.’ I told them, ‘I’m telling you, I flew that airplane.’

“My wife looked at my log book, I hadn’t looked at my log book in 44 years.”

The log book confirmed what Kifer already knew to be true: that was his plane in the picture, and now he can sit in that same cockpit anytime he wants. The plane was donated to the Chennault Aviation and Military Museum for hangar workers to refurbish for display — and better yet, for Kifer’s enjoyment and reminiscing.

Kifer sat in the plane’s cockpit and told stories Tuesday afternoon, reacquainting himself with the cockpit he spent so many hours in. He found the ejection handle that he nearly tugged on accident on one flight: “I could’ve ended up on the ground for being stupid, for not paying attention to what I was doing,” he said.

Kifer went on to find other controls in the cockpit that he used during the war, like the urination tube — he only used it once, as the suction sound it gave off unsettled him — and the control that folded down the wings, so they could fit more planes onto the aircraft carrier Midway.

Given what the plane has been through, it still looks pretty good and will look good as new when the hangar crew is done with it. After it was retired from active flights, Kifer said the Convair sat in Memphis for 25 years before being transported to St. John the Baptist Airport in Reserve, where it sat without a canopy and survived one last life-or-death scenario — Hurricane Katrina. There is some weather damage in the cockpit, but Kifer still jumped right in and recognized so many of his old gauges and triggers.

Kifer gave the museum a picture of the plane in action, and the crew will replicate that paint job, in addition to reupholstering the seat and other cosmetic changes in the cockpit. Kifer was told they hope to have the complete by Memorial Day 2016, and Kifer can’t wait to see it.

“When they bring it out, you better believe I’ll be there.”