In a garage space in Old Town, about a dozen volunteers are rebuilding a rare World War I-era aircraft to memorialize Wichita’s only aviator to win a Medal of Honor. They range from childhood model plane builders and military history buffs to veterans of U.S. conflicts going back to the Korean War.
Most were already familiar with the story of the man they are honoring when they started restoring the plane, but they feel too many Wichitans are not.
Second Lt. Erwin Bleckley was a 23-year-old Wichitan who left his job at Fourth National Bank to man a gun on the open-cockpit DH-4 aircraft during the Great War.
Bleckley and pilot 1st Lt. Harold Goettler were killed Oct. 6, 1918, while trying to supply American soldiers who’d gotten trapped for days behind enemy lines in France’s Argonne Forest. The group of around 554 soldiers from nine companies became known as The Lost Battalion; only 194 were rescued; the others either died, were taken prisoner or went missing.
Shot down by enemy fire during their second, much lower, flight to supply the troops, Goettler died in the gunfire. Bleckley was rescued by French soldiers but died before they could get him to a hospital. The pair had been flying missions together for less than a month.
“We’ll make the delivery or die in the attempt,” Bleckley reportedly said before the fatal flight.
Both men were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
“We want people to know this is not just another schlub that went to World War I,” said Greg Zuercher, a board member with the nonprofit Bleckley Foundation. “This was a highly capable and achieving young Wichitan that we lost to great sacrifice over there.
“His best friend, Frank Priest, came back from the war, and he became a wealthy businessman and a civic benefactor. And we think Erwin would have ended up much the same way, except in aviation,” Zuercher said.
Zuercher is a 22-year veteran who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and can trace his family’s military service going back as far as the Revolutionary War.
He became familiar with Bleckley’s story sometime in the 1990s, so when he and fellow commanders with the VFW Post 112 in Wichita were discussing which veteran they should honor in 2018, he was ready with a suggestion: Let’s honor Bleckley in the centennial year of his fateful mission.
Since then, Zuercher’s been on a mission to memorialize Bleckley beyond the street that was named for him in 1932 and a small monument on the campus of the Veterans Administration.
In 2018, Zuercher and another Army vet, Doug Jacobs, formed the nonprofit Bleckley Foundation and soon had the lofty goal of acquiring a DH-4, the first American-built warplane, with the idea that it be displayed in Wichita’s Eisenhower National Airport.
“We were thinking we might need to build a replica until the real thing fell out of the sky,” Zuercher said, referring to the May 2020 crash of a DH-4 owned by a Bowling Green, Ky., foundation.
Aware of the Bleckley Foundation’s search, the Kentucky foundation offered it to the Wichita nonprofit at a fire-sale price of $105,000 a few days after the crash.
Other prospective buyers armed with much deeper pockets included the national Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, a museum outside Paris, France, and a private collector. But the Bleckley Foundation’s goal helped them get the aircraft.
After it’s restored for the second time, the plane could well be worth more than $2 million due to its historical significance and the fact that only five 1918 military versions remain in the world, Zuercher said.
While it will be restored to full airworthiness, it will be too valuable to risk flying again, he said. Negotiations are still underway for its eventual display.
Twice a week since moving into their Old Town workshop at 359 N. Mosley in August 2023, volunteers with different areas of expertise and skills have been working on the plane. The group had worked out of a hangar provided by Global Aviation Technologies until the company declared bankruptcy.
John Bierens, who has 40 years of aviation experience and is a credentialed inspector, is the project manager and lead mechanic.
“It’s been a childhood dream to work on a World War I aircraft,” said Bierens, a longtime military memorabilia collector.
Jerry Carpenter also thinks it’s special to work on the DH-4.
“How often do you get to honor a Medal of Honor winner and one from World War I?” said Carpenter, who is combining skills from his aviation career — first working at Boeing and then retiring from Textron — with his woodworking hobby.
While about half of the plane was salvaged from its crash in Kentucky, Carpenter and other craftsmen are having to rebuild various pieces of the plane’s wooden mainframe.
With decades of experience working on aircraft and automobiles, Vietnam War vet Floyd Moody is known as the engine guy. He’s traveled to Idaho and Washington, meeting with an expert on DH-4 engines and scouring for parts for the project.
Another Vietnam War vet, Terry Mulvaney, who started a business repairing aircraft cabinets when he was no longer medically qualified to fly regional airline planes, has also been helping reconstruct the plane’s mainframe.
While he’s recently retired from his unofficial role as the project manager, “I haven’t lost my passion,” Mulvaney said, indicating he plans to volunteer as often as possible.
Another volunteer and foundation board member, Shawna Smith, has overseen the creation of a mobile museum honoring Bleckley inside a 26-by-8-foot trailer that the group takes to various events. The mobile museum will be open to the public during Wichita’s Veterans Day parade and celebration Saturday, Nov. 9. The parade starts at 11 a.m., and Exploration Place is providing space for static displays. Science museum admission for vets and their families will be free Nov. 9.
Zuercher said the foundation’s goal is to have the plane ready for an initial display during the next McConnell Air Force Base airshow in 2026. In January 2019, base officials renamed a small ballroom inside the base’s Robert J. Dole Center in Bleckley’s honor.
Zuercher’s passion for honoring Bleckley has drawn some ribbing from his siblings.
“They say, ‘When you get to heaven, Bleckley is going to come up and give you a hug.’ And I always reply, ‘And I’ll hug him back.’”
Contact Amy Geiszler Jones at algj64@sbcglobal.net.
Veterans Day events
The mobile museum honoring Erwin Bleckley will be open to the public outside Exploration Place during Wichita’s Veterans Day parade and celebration Saturday, Nov. 9. The parade starts at 11 a.m. at Central and Main and ends at Exploration Place. Admission to the children’s science museum is free for veterans and their families on Nov. 9.
On Veterans Day, Nov. 11, a commemoration will be held at Veterans Memorial Park starting at 11 a.m. The park is located at 339 N. Greenway Blvd.
To learn more
Tours of the DH-4 restoration workshop at 359 N. Mosley are available by either dropping by 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays or by calling 316-253-3806. More information about the Bleckley Foundation can be found at BleckleyFoundation.org.
