HOME > BUFFALO > BW-372 > 5 - GOSPORT

Former Marine's 11-year journey ends with only known surviving WWII Brewster Buffalo aboard NAS Pensacola

By Larry W. Kachelhofer

Depending on who you were or what country you flew for had a lot to do with whether or not you liked the Brewster F2A Buffalo. Today there is only one known Buffalo left-and as of Aug. 17, it's at the National Museum of Naval Aviation aboard NAS Pensacola.

The Buffalo was found and recovered by former Marine Corps flight engineer Gary Villiard. As a Marine, he was assigned to the Commandant of the Marine Corps' plane and flew with three commandants from 1970-1975. The C-118 he flew in is now at the museum aboard NASP.

The F2A Buffalo he found was flown by Finnish ace Lauri Pekuri.

In November 1939 the United States sold "de-navalized" or slightly modified Brewsters to Finland because they were attacked by Russia in what became known as the Winter War. But the war was over and Russia occupied southeastern Finland before the Finns could get the Brewsters online.

Finland was also an ally of Germany at that time, which meant the United States Navy unknowingly sold planes to Hitler's ally.

When Hitler attacked Russia, the Finnish pilots were eager to "get even" for what the Russians had done to their homeland.

During a dogfight with Russian pilots, Pekuri's Buffalo was hit 13 times, so the ace felt his best option was to ditch it on a frozen lake and make his escape. For those who think there's two of them, the one in Finland is a Humu, a Finnish-made version of the Brewster....

A journey begins

In the past, the Navy trained pilots for carrier landings on Lake Michigan. Planes were lost when they crashed in the lake and some of them have since been salvaged.

"I was at the museum with a friend who helped on the Lake Michigan retrievals," Villiard said. "It was winding down and he asked (retired Capt.) Bob (Rasmussen) and Buddy (Macon) what was the next thing on the list," Villiard said.

"They said they wanted a Buffalo and we said it sounded interesting. I had just sold the company so I didn't have anything else to do."

"Nobody had a Buffalo, so it was not only a missing link to naval aviation but to aviation as a whole."

The museum told the two men of a Buffalo from the Royal Australian Air Force that was in Malaysia

"They just wanted a Brewster no mater what it was. I found it, but it wasn't salvageable. They wouldn't let me dig it up. It was in the middle of a palm oil plantation," Villiard said. "I found pieces and parts but they didn't know where the whole thing was."

Villiard returned to the museum aboard NASP and learned of one in Finland.

"A guy in Finland gave me some pointers. (I used) Russian archives and Finish archives. Of the 44 (Brewsters) there were only four that could have survived the dogfights."

During the next four years, Villiard eliminated two of the four.

"We were actually able to locate the after action reports from the dogfights. The problem was the reports didn't jive.

Villiard said. "The Russians told one story and the Finns told another story.

"There were 52 lakes in the area (in Russia). The aircraft was in the 40th lake we searched. It took 11 years. I found it in June 1998, delivered it in August 2004-started in August 1993.

Villiard said he isn't a patient person, but the government taught him patience.

"It was in Mobile from January 2002 until this past Tuesday morning (Aug 17). In Jan. 2002 we were assured by the Navy we were in days of a deal. The bureaucracy kicked in again," Villiard said.

Once Villiard found the plane, the problems with the Russian government was more than "red tape."

The Russians let him bring the plane up from the bottom of the lake (60 feet), but when the Russians saw what it was, the Russian government recognized the value of it. "I had permission to look for it, but it didn't state what I was looking for. They didn't know I was looking for a Brewster," Villiard said.

"They negated my search permission by claiming we were in possession of firearms. We were, we had the machine guns from the plane, and that had to be reported.

"Before we could get to the authorities to make our case, they negated my search permit by charging us with being in possession of firearms. Since that time that has all been fixed. After they confiscated it, they began to entertain offers. Business as usual.

"I don't think there was anything wrong with it, I just happened to get caught in that trap."

One of the more prominent bullet holes in the Buffalo is in a wing. The bullet hit the back of the wing, traveled parallel through the wing and left an eight-inch hole as it exited the front of the wing.

"There are 13 bullet holes so the pilot had motivation to put it down-so that one (described above) or the one that hit him in the back of the seat, I'm not sure which one," Villiard said.

Villiard added that this plane is an original Brewster.

"The Brewster in the hands of the Finns turned out to be one of the most awesome fighters every created (because) the colder climate, (plus) the Finns were forced to make them work because it was all they had and they were also defending their homeland. They they had to make them work. The Finns weren't up against Zero's like us (United States) in the Pacific, and the Zero was an exceptional fighting machine."

A good ending

"I don't think the Navy quiet understood what this is all about until they opened the crate. But that changed their minds. When I drove it through that gate on Tuesday morning (Aug. 17), my whole perspective changed as well."

After the plane was raised from the lake and Villiard finally regained possession, he found Pekuri, the Buffalo's last pilot.

"I interviewed the pilot who flew this plane. It's amazing when you get to take history full circle, Villard said. "I returned the personal items I found in the plane. He was a retired colonel from the Finnish Air Force. It was more subdued than I had anticipated. He was a real fine fello and extremely appreciative.

"He had written about the account of this ditching it and it must have been an extremely traumatizing event because he wasn't clear on what happened during the ditching, Villiard said. "In his memoir, when he surfaced, the lake was covered with fire, but the wing tanks never ruptured, there was no fuel leak from his plane. If you can't remember all of it you tell a story that is plausible and he certainly did."

He was 82 when he returned the effects. Pekuri lived in Helsinki and died about 18 months ago.

Villiard feels he has made the right decision in handing over the world's only surviving Buffalo to the National Museum of Naval Aviation.

"You guys have one of the most fantastic museums on earth and this will lend a hand itself to enhancing an already sterling image that the museum already has," Villiard said. "It was a prudent decision for the Navy to take this airplane. This thing has created a firestorm and there are a lot of kooks out there and this story should be told but it should be told accurately. And sometimes that is hard to do.

"It's one of the few airplanes on earth that can be documented completely. Every pilot. An aircraft that you can actually recreate the history of.

"Most of the aircraft that were saved were not veterans (of war). The reason being that most of them, they dumped over the side of ships. Like the ones in the lake (Lake Michigan) they were trainers, not veterans. To get a war veteran after 60 years is extremely difficult."

Doug Kirby, restoration coordinator for the National Museum of Naval Aviation said, "We will inventory all the parts and document it first. It will go back together as a whole aircraft, but how it will be displayed is undecided yet. Whatever snapshot in time the director (Capt. Rasmussen) decides on is what we will take it back to."

Next: 6 - 'The Last Brewster' (article from a Finnish newspaper)