From the Dec. 8, 2012, Chicago Tribune by Jonathan Bullington.
A failed training mission left it on the bottom of Lake Michigan 68 years ago, but Friday morning (Dec. 7th), crews pulled the fighter plane from Waukegan Harbor where it had been pulled. It is the first leg of a journey that will hopefully end up at a Glenview naval museum.
The date last Friday was not lost on the crew either. Stacy Greenhill, a pilot and oldest child of Charles Greenhill, who paid for the recovery, said, "These are the airplanes that helped us win the war."
Charles Greenhill, 78, a pilot from Mettawa sponsored the recovery of another plane from Lake Michigan two years ago that currently is on display at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.
The plane recovered Friday is an FM-2 Wildcat and will be taken to Pensacola for a five-year complete restoration.
Crews from A&T Recovery towed the plane underwater Sunday to Waukegan Harbor, arriving on Tuesday. The process also involves getting the approval of various state agencies, the Navy and the Army Corps of Engineers.
Thirty-one World War II planes have been recovered from Lake Michigan so far.
Always Great to recover a Relic. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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