The Life, Death, Life, Death, and Life of a Glorious Warbird

In 1981, business-owner Jim Tobul and his father purchased a Chance-Vought F4U Corsair. More accurately, the two men purchased three truckloads of parts that, over the following decade, they fashioned into a flying warbird.

That Jim Tobul is an FAA certified AMP/IA and pilot was critical to the endeavor, but not so critical as the father-and-son team’s passion for aviation, the Corsair, and the history embodied in the aircraft to which they dedicated vast tracts of their lives.

The machine the Tobuls built—and upon which they bestowed the apt nom de guerre, Korean War Hero—is Chance Vought F4U-4 Corsair serial number Bu#97143, registration number N713JT. The aircraft served two tours of duty with the U.S. Navy and flew over two-hundred combat missions before it was retired from Naval service on 05 July 1956. Between approximately 1960 to 1970, the aircraft flew with the Honduran Air Force, taking part in 1969’s Football War (Spanish: La guerra del fútbol; colloquial: Soccer War). The conflict was a brief skirmish between the militaries of El Salvador and Honduras to which the Organization of American States (OAS) negotiated a hasty cease-fire. Hostilities began on 14 July 1969 and ended four days later—hence the affair’s unofficial sobriquet, the Hundred Hours' War.

In 1970, the battle-weary Corsair was purchased by an American Airline pilot who saw it returned to the U.S., but beyond selling its component parts to the Tobuls, had no hand in the fighter’s restoration.
For ten years, Jim and his father Joe Tobul worked on the Corsair, investing untold time and monies into the warbird until it returned triumphantly to American skies on 07 December 1991—a date to which all non-philistines ascribe reverence.

In 1992, the beautifully restored Corsair took to the air-show circuit and remained a fixture thereof, alternately piloted by Jim and Joe, until November 2002, when a tragic accident suffered enroute an air-show in Columbia, South Carolina claimed the life of the senior Tobul.

Jim stored the aircraft’s wreckage until 1998, when he began working to yet again return the machine to airworthiness. For over a year, Tobul the younger labored alone before an old friend, Bill Klaers of Colorado Spring’s Westpac Restorations, convinced him to send the Corsair’s mortal remains to the Centennial State, where Klares would personally oversee the remainder of its second restoration.

True to his word, Klares finished the job, and two-years later, Korean War Hero once again thundered aloft.
Currently, Jim Tobul and Korean War Hero perform at 18 or more airshows every year, eliciting nostalgia in the hearts of Korean War veterans and awakening curiosity in the minds of youths. Mr. Tobul is proud to participate in the U.S. Navy Legacy Flight program, in which he flies Korean War Hero alongside a modern Navy F-18 Super Hornet in a poignant display of military heritage and tribute.

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