The USS Saratoga Museum Foundation in cooperation with the Ted Williams Museum of Hernando, Florida plans a permanent display of Ted Williams artifacts and memorabilia as part of the proposed aircraft carrier museum at the former Quonset/Davisville naval complex on Rhode Island's beautiful Narragansett Bay. Catalyst for the exhibit was the Foundation's acquisition of a rare F9F Panther jet, the same type Williams flew in combat as a Marine fighter pilot in Korea. According to Frank Lennon, Foundation President, the plane will be restored in the colors of Ted's unit, Marine Fighter Squadron VMF-311. It will form the centerpiece of a major display that will eventually honor celebrities and other individuals best known for their successes in other walks of life, but who also served their country honorably and well.

An aircraft of "firsts," the sleek Grumman F9F Panther was the first jet-powered fighter to see widespread service with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. It was the first Navy jet to shoot down an enemy aircraft, the first Navy jet to shoot down an enemy jet-powered aircraft, and the first jet aircraft used by the Blue Angels aerobatic team.

The Panther entered service in May 1949. They were none too soon. On August 6, 1950, Panthers were the first carrier jets to see action in Korea and performed almost half of all attack missions for the Navy and Marine Corps.

The Grumman F9F Panther was the manufacturer's first jet fighter and the US Navy's second. Power was a Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet built under license by Pratt & Whitney as the J42. Since there was insufficient space within the wings and fuselage for fuel for the thirsty jet, permanently mounted wingtip fuel tanks were added. Panthers served with distinction in the Korean War, downing five Mikoyan MiG-15s with no loss despite the MiG's superior performance. The type was the primary Navy jet fighter and ground-attack plane in the Korean conflict. Panthers were withdrawn from front-line service in 1956, but remained in training roles and with the reserves until 1958. The only foreign buyer of the Panther was the Argentine Navy, who bought 24 ex-USN aircraft in 1958. The catapults on the then only Argentine carrier, ARA Independencia (V-1), were considered not powerful enough to launch the F9F, so the aircraft were based on land. They were involved in the general movilization during the 1965 border clash between Argentina and Chile but no combat happened. They were taken out of service in 1969 because of lack of spare parts. A swept-wing derivative of the Panther was later built, after concerns about the Panther's inferiority to its MiG opponents in Korea; this plane was the Grumman F9F Cougar.

The two museums, along with the Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame, co-hosted a golf tournament in which former Red Sox ballplayers and other celebrities participated in order to raise money for the aircraft restoration and the Williams exhibit.

Dave McCarthy, a former Major in the New Hampshire State Police who is now Executive Director of the Ted Williams Museum, enthusiastically embraced the idea of working together on the project when Lennon presented it. "Lou Gorman, a retired Navy Captain with service in Korea, is also on the Saratoga board, and he put Frank in touch with me," said McCarthy.

"Captain Theodore Samuel Williams flew 39 combat missions in Korea, after previously giving up three years of his career while on active duty during World War II," added McCarthy. "We will do whatever we can to help honor Ted's military service, as well as that of all members of our armed forces."

The Ted Williams Museum will open a satellite museum in Rhode Island centered around the Panther. Their contribution will include Ted's own Marine Corps memorabilia as part of a special Ted Williams exhibit. "We will also provide enough baseball material so that visitors can make the link between Ted's military and baseball careers," added McCarthy.

Lennon, a West Point graduate and a Vietnam combat veteran himself, has struggled with the challenge of getting the youth of today to acknowledge and appreciate the sacrifices of their fathers and grandfathers, members of previous generations who fought and died so that these youngsters could live the lives they enjoy today. "Educating kids today means first getting their attention. Who are the icons and role models youngsters look up to? For the most part, they are sports stars, entertainers, and other celebrities. By involving recognized names from those fields, we will go a long way toward closing the gap," Lennon concluded.

Eight years ago, while Lennon was running an aviation museum in western New York, he came up with the idea of honoring people such as Ted Williams, Bob Feller, Jimmy Stewart, and Clark Gable to help demonstrate that celebrity status does not preclude service to one's country, and to present service in today's Guard and Reserve as a positive thing.

Ted Williams accepted Lennon's invitation to participate in an inaugural event, and to help get other celebrities involved. The project was put on hold when Lennon left the New York museum. "They decided not to pursue the concept, so I brought it with me to Rhode Island, planning to revive it as part of the Saratoga project as soon as circumstances allowed, " Lennon said. Ted Williams' death in 2002 forced another revision of the plan, and the concept was not revived until November, 2005 when Lennon had an opportunity to acquire one of the two privately-owned F9F Panther fighter aircraft in the United States.

"We've had feelers out to friends on the warbird circuit for years," said Lennon. "Although Grumman built more than 1,300 of these fighters, only nine are still in existence, and of those only two are privately owned." This particular Panther had been flying on the air show circuit for a number of years, winning many awards for the combination of the quality of its restoration and its rarity. The plane crash-landed near the Kalamazoo, MI airport a few years ago, and was donated to the local air museum by the injured owner/pilot.

"Plans to restore the aircraft to flying condition never materialized, and when the F9F was put up for auction we seized upon the opportunity and purchased it with private funds," said Lennon.

Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002), nicknamed "The Kid", the "Splendid Splinter", "Teddy Ballgame" and "The Thumper", was an American left fielder in Major League Baseball who played 19 seasons, twice interrupted by military service as a Marine Corps pilot, with the Boston Red Sox. It has been argued that he was the greatest hitter in the history of baseball. Williams was a two-time American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) winner, led the league in batting six times, and won the Triple Crown twice. He had a career batting average of .344, with 521 home runs, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966. He is the last player in Major League Baseball history to bat over .400 in a single season. An avid sport fisherman, he hosted a television show about fishing, and was inducted into the Fishing Hall of Fame.

Williams was born in San Diego, California as Teddy Samuel Williams, after Teddy Roosevelt and his father. At some point, his birth certificate was changed to "Theodore", as was the date of birth, but his mother and his closest friends always called him Teddy. His father, Samuel, from New York, a soldier, Sheriff, photographer and great admirer of the late president, and his mother, May, a Salvation Army worker of Spanish-Basque descent whose parents came from Mexico, were generally absentee parents whom he later came to resent. Early in his career, he stated that he wished to be remembered as the "greatest hitter who ever lived", an honor that he indeed achieved in many eyes by the end of his career.

He was also a world-class fisherman, who loved to fish just as much as he loved hitting a baseball — perhaps even more, because he didn't have to contend with boos and catcalls from fans while fishing on a river.

Williams played high school baseball at Herbert Hoover High School in San Diego and lived at 4121 Utah Street in the North Park area of the city. After graduation, he turned professional and had minor league stints for his hometown San Diego Padres and the Minneapolis Millers.

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Williams moved up to the major league Red Sox in 1939. In 1941, he entered the last day of the season with a batting average of .3996. This would have been rounded up to .400, making him the first man to hit .400 since Bill Terry in 1930. His manager left the decision whether to play up to him. Williams opted to play in both games of the day's doubleheader and risk losing his record. He got 6 hits in 8 at bats, raising his season average to .406; no one has hit .400 since.

At the time, this achievement was overshadowed by Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak in the same season. Their rivalry was played up by the press; Williams always felt himself slightly better as a hitter, but acknowledged that DiMaggio was the better all-around player. Also in 1941, Williams set a major-league record for on-base percentage in a season at .551. That record would last until 2002, when Barry Bonds upped this mark to .582. A lesser-known accomplishment is Williams' feat of reaching base for the most consecutive games, 84. In addition to this record, Williams also holds the third-longest and fourth-longest such streaks. In 1957, Williams reached base in 16 consecutive plate appearances, also a major league record.

One of Williams' other memorable accomplishments was his game-winning home run off of Rip Sewell's notorious eephus pitch during the 1946 All-Star Game. Archival footage shows a delighted Williams hopping around the bases, clapping; he later said this was his greatest thrill in baseball.

Among the few black marks on Williams' playing record was his performance in his lone postseason appearance, the 1946 World Series. Williams managed just 5 singles in 25 at-bats, with just 1 RBI, as the Red Sox lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 8th inning of the seventh game. Much of this was due to his stubborn insistence into hitting into the Cardinals' defensive shift, which frequently involved five or six of the Cardinals' fielders positioned to the right of second base. This shift was a version of the Boudreau Shift, popularized by Cleveland Indians manager Lou Boudreau in an attempt to reduce Williams' effectiveness.

Williams may also have been playing with an elbow injured during a pre-World Series exhibition game played while the Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers were playing a best-of-three series to determine the National League champion.

An obsessive student of batting, Williams hit for both power and average. In 1970 he wrote a book on the subject, The Science of Hitting; revised (1986), which is still read by many baseball players. He lacked foot speed, as attested by his career total of 24 stolen bases, one inside-the-park home run, and one occasion of hitting for the cycle. He felt that with more speed he could have raised his average considerably and hit .400 at least one more time.

Despite Williams's lack of range in the field, he was considered a sure fielder with a good throwing arm, although he occasionally expressed regret that he had not worked harder on his fielding.

Williams served as a US Marine pilot during both World War II and the Korean War, serving in the same unit (VMF-311) as John Glenn in the latter. These absences — taking almost five years out of the heart of a great career — significantly reduced his career totals.

Williams' two MVP Awards and two Triple Crowns came in four different years. Along with Rogers Hornsby, he is one of only two players to win the Triple Crown twice but he did not win the MVP award in either of his Triple Crown seasons. Williams, Lou Gehrig, and Chuck Klein are the only players since the establishment of the MVP award to win the Triple Crown and not be named league MVP in that season.

Williams' hitting was so feared that opponents frequently employed the radical, defensive "Williams Shift" against him, leaving only one fielder on the third base half of the field. Rather than bunting the ball into the open space, the proud Williams batted as usual against the contrived defense. The defensive tactic is still used to this day, and is appropriately called the infield shift. Interestingly, it is often used against Red Sox slugger David Ortiz.

Ted Williams retired from the game in 1960 and hit a home run in his final at-bat, on September 28, 1960, in front of only 10,454 fans at Fenway Park. This home run — a solo shot hit off Baltimore pitcher Jack Fisher in the 8th inning that reduced the Orioles lead to 4-3 — was immortalized in The New Yorker essay "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu", by John Updike.

McCarthy stressed the Ted Williams Museum staff has adopted the motto of the US Marines, "Semper Fi", when it comes to honoring the memery of Captain Ted Williams and all those former major leaguers who served their country. "We are and will be 'always faithful' ," said McCarthy. [an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive]