In 1945, an 18-year-old Kirk Deardorff, of Chillicothe, joined the Air Force as a mechanic. Newly trained, he was sent to the southern tip of Japan shortly after the end of World War II to “mothball” P38 fighter planes.
Deardorff can still remember seeing rolls of P38 fighter planes just sitting there ready to be placed in storage. During the process of mothballing the planes, Deardorff took a wheel and clock from two separate P38s and mailed them home as war mementos.
Sixty-two years later, he has donated his momentos to the Chillicothe Municipal Airport for the Dick West Museum.
“Sixty-two years later, I had no idea it (the control wheel) would be a rare museum piece,” said Deardorff. “I realized it had a historical significance and I wanted to put it in the museum.”
While in Japan, Deardorff became friends of the late Dick West, a well-known Chillicothe fighter pilot ace. ..........
Chillicothe, Mo. —
