Two local veterans with a special connection to the F-4 Phantom fighter jet located at the American Legion property on South 6th Street stopped by the Marshall County Veterans Affairs “Coffee and Camaraderie” event at VFW Post 839 on Tuesday morning to share some history on the aircraft and how they were able to bring it to Marshalltown over 30 years ago.

Jeff Heiden, a REALTOR ® with New Horizons Realty, served six years in the Army National Guard and then re-enlisted in the Air National Guard after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, eventually deploying to Iraq as a supply sergeant. Back in the early 1990s, he and his brother Chris led the efforts to bring a fighter jet to Marshalltown when he heard that the Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum in Ohio was letting out more aircraft to serve as static displays honoring veterans, and Heiden went to work securing the backing of the local American Legion. Originally, it was suggested to place it on the Iowa Veterans Home campus, but Heiden envisioned a more public location.

“I drive by the airplane a couple of times a day, you know, for my New Horizons Realty (work), and I salute the flag every time. I don’t think I’ve missed more than maybe one time,” Heiden said. “I turn around, and I drive back my grandkids when they’re with me. I tell them (to) salute the flag or get out and walk.”

Bringing the jet to Marshalltown cost about $15,000, which Heiden estimated would be somewhere closer to $50,000 in today’s figures.

“I told my wife, I’m getting that F-4 Phantom here. I’m going to honor all the men and women veterans, even if I have to pay the last half myself,” he said.

What helped to build momentum, according to Heiden, was an invitation to the Rotary Club meeting of which Air Force veteran and now retired lawyer Joe Latham was a member, and they raised several hundred dollars almost immediately. It also revealed an incredibly chance connection: Latham, who flew 101 bombing missions over North Vietnam during that conflict, had flown the exact plane they were seeking to bring back to Marshalltown.

Heiden joked that he talked about the plane so much at his previous job at a lumberyard that he got fired and started a new career in real estate as a result. Nevertheless, he persisted, working with Mel Pitzen at the T-R to ramp up promotional efforts. Donations continued to pour in from local individuals, businesses and nonprofit organizations, and Heiden also credited T-R Outdoors Today Columnist and Air Force Veteran Garry Brandenburg with helping him down the stretch as he started to feel burnt out.

The project almost hit another snag when a Master Sergeant at the Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas said he was only giving Heiden two more weeks to get the jet out of there, but once he invoked the endorsement of Four-Star Air Force General Chuck Horner, a Davenport native, he was given an indefinite extension.

Eventually, the jet made it to Marshalltown, and Heiden joked with veteran and former Marshalltown Police Department Officer Jerry Kremer about a call the MPD had received claiming an airplane had crash landed in the K-Mart parking lot.

Latham, who later flew F-100 fighters in the Iowa Air National Guard, then shared some of his personal experiences serving in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, including his service with Joe Crecca, who was shot down and taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), living in captivity for six years. As chronicled in the T-R at the time, Latham and other Air Force pilots met with their Vietnamese counterparts in San Diego in 2017, sharing reflections and recollections on their service in a brutal war that claimed the lives of nearly 60,000 American soldiers and a much higher number on the NVA/Viet Cong side. At the opening banquet, Latham was seated next to a man he shot down.

“It was great flying, and you had to have a lot of luck,” Latham said.

Before wrapping up and opening the floor to questions, Heiden implored all honorably discharged veterans, regardless of when and where they served, to be proud that they wore the nation’s uniform as he recalled conversations with some who felt guilt about never being sent into an active warzone.

“If you ever see a fellow veteran and you didn’t serve in Vietnam, like my friend, longtime friend Jerry Kremer, my longtime friend Joe Latham, Wayne Faas, don’t worry, you did your service. It’s the luck of the draw where they needed you. What branch of service, wartime, peacetime,” he said. “None of us predicted that when we went in the service and went through boot camp. Nobody knew what was going to happen to you in the military.”

He also shared a humorous anecdote about officials with the city of Marshalltown asking him for a $25 “jet towing permit” and Heiden threatening to have 6,000 veterans protesting on the courthouse lawn if it wasn’t waived. The city relented and issued him a refund.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.