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Grumman Aircraft Co. (fondly known as the Iron Works) and their sister company, produced Ducks for the Navy and Coast Guard from 1933 to 1946.
Their primary mission being search and rescue, Ducks were used during WWII in the Zone of Interior and combat areas including the Aleutians, the Pacific and the Philippines due to their ability to handle rough water.
No. 8563 was built in 1944 and came to Alaska in 1946, shortly after WWII where she was assigned to Elmendorf AFB’s 10th Air Rescue Squadron.
In the spring of 1948 she was dispatched on her last mission. It was reported that while making a slick (glassy) water landing at a lake near near Mt. McKinley, she dug a float and was damaged. The Air Force wrote her off, pushed her back in the black spruce trees where she lay at the mercy of the elements, vandals and target shooters for the next 25 years until the Ketchum family helicoptered her back to Anchorage.
Restoration began in 1973 when Craig and a young mechanic, Paul Erickson, remodeled an outbuilding in the Ketchum complex to house the salvage and begin work on the decades long project. Over the next 20+ years Ketch Ketchum worked his magic to acquire wings (four of them), engine, prop, gear, keep strip, cockpit hatch, flying wires and a mass of bits and pieces. Craig Ketchum assumed the responsibility (with help of a lot of good friends and employees) of attaching the parts and the "Duck" was rolled out of the hangar in its original pristine colors in the spring of 2001. It is currently located on loan for display in the Alaska Aviation Museum in Anchorage.
The restoration goal has been twofold: authenticity and back to airworthy condition. It has been a long and rewarding love affair.
A full package including appraisal is available to the serious collector.
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