Jet in Erie cemetery in need of caretaker

Associated Press

ERIE, Pa.

The fighter jet is a local landmark.

The Korean War-era F-94 Starfire has been stationed along Interstate 90, in the veterans’ section of Erie County Memorial Gardens, for almost 50 years.

It’s a symbol of the men and women who served in the U.S. armed forces.

It’s also a symbol of the Summit Township cemetery.

“Everybody I talk to about the cemetery says, ‘That’s where the jet is,’” Erie County Memorial Gardens sales manager Joe Monaco said. “People from out of town come here to see it.”

But the aging landmark is deteriorating and in need of some TLC.

On loan from the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, the jet was brought to Erie County by Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 264 of Corry in 1959. But post members have been unable to care for the jet in recent years, post Commander Ron Craker said.

“We’ve been trying to find someone to take it on, and have had no response whatsoever,” Craker said.

By terms of the lease agreement with the Air Force, only another veterans organization or area government can take responsibility for the jet, Monaco said.

Still, the jet has been tended to for the past 14 years by an Erie World War II and Korean War veteran who was distressed to see it deteriorating.

“I’d pass by the jet all the time, and it looked kind of sad there. It looked like it was going to disintegrate. It was in really bad shape,” said Robert Leise, 91.

With permission from the Air Force museum, Leise went to work.

“The first thing was to get all the bugs and bees and snakes out of it,” Leise said. “I had to work inside it for about a year. The metal was disintegrating. I had to plug all the holes up to finally get rid of the mice. After that, I sprayed inside with insecticide.”

Leise painted the jet as needed through the years, with help only from his grandson, Steven Leise, and other family members.

Monaco has taken up the battle to save the plane and has been contacting local governments and veterans organizations. So far, no one’s been willing to sponsor and maintain the jet, he said.