With the movie The Bridges at Toko-Ri and the Grumman F9F Panther Jet

The Korean War started as the two rival governments of Korea entered into a civil war in 1950. The United States government portrayed the conflict as part of a larger Cold War plan of communist aggression, encouraging the United Nations to vote to back the South Korea government. Shortly thereafter 15 nations, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and France, sent troops, aircraft, weapons and supplies to Korea. The United States supplied the lion’s share, with U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur leading the effort.

Many of the weapons and aircraft used in the early part of the war were outdated World War II equipment recalled to battle from storage, as were many of the soldiers who were called up from the reserves.

In 1955, shortly after the truce was announced, the Academy Award winning film about the Korean War, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, came out, starring William Holden as Lt. Harry Brubaker, a pilot flying U.S. Navy Grumman F9F Panther jet fighters, Grace Kelly as his wife, and Mickey Rooney as a helicopter rescue pilot. The film offered a fascinating and accurate insight into the strangely attractive art of war, especially for those war baby children whose fathers, brothers and uncles saw action in World War II. For me this film was a sort of epiphany, settling my fate in various ways. It instilled in me a life-long fascination of aviation, an intense interest in the F9F Panther jet, and a near-fatal attraction for aerial combat.

The film was based a book written by James Michener about an actual raid on the Toko-Ri bridges, which he witnessed from the carrier decks and reported on as a wartime newspaper correspondent. The plot is built around Harry Brubaker’s return to active duty leaving behind his family and career as a lawyer. He is an aircraft carrier-based fighter pilot flying a Navy Grumman F9F Panther. A dangerous mission critical to the war effort is scheduled, and the conflicted Lt. Brubaker has doubts not only about his surviving the attack, but also the war in general. He considers his options, but decides to do his duty and fly the mission. It is an interesting fact that Holden’s younger brother was a Navy fighter pilot killed in action in World War II.

This thought certainly must have been with him during the filming. The carrier scenes were made during flight operations on the USS Oriskany and most of flying was filmed with actual aircraft. The bombing attack on the bridges used special effects involving scale models but was very well done and earned the film its only Academy Award.

After seeing the movie, I realized that those jets were exactly like the ones in front of Base Operations at the U.S. Naval Air Station where my father, a naval aviator, was stationed. I was hooked. Later, I would sit near the runway for hours after school, watching them fly. My favorite game was playing pilot in the cockpit of the wrecked aircraft in the base’s boneyard.

The aircraft Lt. Brubaker flew in the film, the Grumman F9F Panther, was a postwar development. While outclassed as a pure air-to-air fighter because of its unswept wing design and wingtip fuel tanks, the role it played in Korea was that of a ground attack bomber. It became the most widely used fighter in the U.S. Navy and was even credited with that service’s first jet aircraft combat kill in Korea. By the end of the war the F9F Panther completed over 78,000 combat missions. It remained in frontline service until 1956.

Grumman improved the design by adding a swept wing and different empennage and called it the F9F Cougar. While the Cougar was developed too late to see service during the Korean War, this variant was active for a much longer period of time. A two-seater version even saw service during the early part of the air war in the skies over Vietnam.

When the Vietnam War started I saw this as my way to finally fly in combat and experience firsthand what I had seen and remembered so well from the film and the stories told during family reunions. So, I left college, entered the U.S. Army and a few years later I years found myself as a 23-year-old aviator and captain at the command of a helicopter gunship attack unit, the highly regarded Mustangs of the 68th Assault Helicopter Company. Only once during my year-long combat tour did I seriously wonder if the attraction I had felt as a 10-year-old watching The Bridges at Toko-Ri that led me into aviation would turn out to be a near-fatal one.

During one mission I was shot down, and while awaiting rescue with my crew, crouched down in a muddy rice paddy. With my .38-caliber pistol drawn and at the ready, I could see the enemy moving in the nearby tree line. Terrified, I instantly had stark visions of reliving Lt. Brubaker’s last moments in the film and was instantly aware of the weird and uncanny similarities we shared. We both were flying close-in ground attack missions and wore almost identical pilot gear: helmets, gloves, boots, survival vests, flight suits and even carried the same small revolver as a sidearm. That is what I thought about in my controlled panic; not my family back home; not about God or praying; or fear or anything else for that matter. All I could think about was Lt. Brubaker’s horrific death in strangely similar circumstances in a movie that led me to this particular predicament in my short life. That damn film.

As it turned out I was only on the ground for a few minutes before my wingman came in and picked all of us up. We were wet, scared, but safe and uninjured. The image of that event haunted me. I continued my combat tour flying helicopters, but always in the back of my mind was the thought: What did I get myself into? That stupid film.

My obsession with Lt. Brubaker and the Grumman F9F Panther didn’t end with my military service. I eventually met Andy Rooney, the film’s Irish helicopter rescue pilot, at my golf club, Winged Foot. I even came to know briefly actress Stefanie Powers, Holden’s longtime companion until his death in 1981. Her home in California was filled with William Holden’s things, and his photos were everywhere.

Perhaps profiting from those growing war babies in the mid 1950s, many types of aircraft and other military toys were being produced in all price ranges and forms. The Panther jet was one of the first. In the United States, TootsieToy made a two-piece diecast metal F9F Panther casting, which was fairly accurate for a toy of the period. A later version had a cheaper-to-produce hollow body. The Midgetoy firm marketed a simple hollow metal casting version of the Cougar. The Renwal firm made several plastic versions of both the Panther and Cougar in two sizes.

By 1955 Japan had several firms manufacturing quality tin toys, and the F9F Panther was an early subject. Many different versions of the aircraft toy were produced in friction, windup and battery-operated forms.

When the F9F Cougar began its service life, the Panther tooling could easily be modified by adding the swept wings and even more versions were made available, some in wonderfully colorful schemata.

One day in the mid 1970s, I stumbled upon a toy at an antiques fair. It was that dime-store metal F9F Panther jet made by TootsieToy—Lt. Brubaker’s aircraft. The curse of that movie struck again. That event rekindled my childhood interest in toy airplanes and launched me into a 30-year obsession collecting aircraft toys.

As my collection grew and my interests expanded beyond the toy field into manufacturer’s promotional models, travel agency models, and government military identification and recognition models. This eventually led to amassing an extensive collection of all types of miniature aircraft toys and models. But my favorite category remained Grumman’s F9F Panther.

Editor’s Note: Capt. Geoffrey R. Webster, USA, finished his combat tour in Vietnam in June of 1969 and was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Air Medal for Valor, the Bronze Star, The Purple Heart, 30 Air Medals, and was twice presented with the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. We are deeply honored that “G.R.” is part of our editorial team.