WATERLOO - The last time Robert Abernathy got close to anything looking like this, he was being shot at - and shooting back.

Like when he shot down a Nazi jet fighter from his propeller-driven plane in an aerial dogfight over Berlin.

He brushed off a question as to how close he got to the faster enemy craft.

"I didn't get out to measure," he deadpanned.

Abernathy, a World War II flying ace from Mason City, got to see a life-size replica of the North American P-51D Mustang fighter plane he flew during World War II at Waterloo's Grout Museum.

The plane, a re-creation of Abernathy's "Lady Gwen II," is one of the signature pieces of memorabilia visitors will see when they enter the museum's Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum addition when it opens in mid-November.

The replica plane is suspended in front of a re-created bow of the USS Juneau, the Navy cruiser in which Waterloo's five Sullivan brothers fought and died during the war in the South Pacific.

Abernathy, 85, said the replica Mustang, which bears the markings of the one he flew in the war, is a fair re-creation.

"Pretty normal," he said. "I didn't see the six .50-caliber wing guns," three machine guns in each wing. "Of course, I didn't look in the cockpit but I guess there's a stick (joystick) in there."

Abernathy, a native of Pulaski, Tenn., who worked for Northwestern Bell in Mason City after the war, was a captain in the 353rd Fighter Group of the U.S. Eighth Air Force. He flew three years in Europe in Republic P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51s, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal for his service.

The stubby, thick-fuselaged Thunderbolt "was a workhorse," Abernathy said, "It'd take a beating and keep on flying," he said. But he preferred the sleek, maneuverable Mustang, better in a dogfight. "You needed something streamlined," he said.

He shot down five planes during the war - enough "kills" to earn an ace designation. But he and his P-51 squadron mates spent most of their time escorting and protecting B-17 Flying Fortress bombers as they tried to knock out the Nazi war works.

"Our first duty was to go and guard the bombers," he said. The Mustang, unlike its predecessors, had the fuel capacity and range to stay with the bombers throughout their

missions, from England and back. Before the P-51s were built, the bombers "were sitting ducks,' he said.

Abernathy's last victory was over the ME-262, one of the first operational jet fighters of the war. "You couldn't catch it. It was too fast," he said, but it still did not beat the Mustang's maneuverability.

He downed the jet while escorting B-17s.

The German pilot headed for neutral Switzerland to evade Abernathy, who kept his eyes on the enemy jet until it was a speck in the sky. "He didn't make it. I 'headed him off at the pass,' " Abernathy said. He lay in wait and pumped a burst into the German plane as it took a return pass at the B-17s.

The German bailed out. For years, Abernathy thought he had been killed, until the pilot called him while visiting Clear Lake several years ago. Abernathy's one-time adversary had more than 20 kills to his credit by war's end.

On another occasion, Abernathy, isolated, by his squadron after a dogfight, was low on fuel and unable to return back across the English Channel to friendly British soil. He was forced to land in occupied Holland, directed there by hand signals from a U.S. bomber crew unable to communicate with him by radio. The landing area was occupied by members of the Dutch Underground, who refueled him and got him home. By the time he returned to base in Ipswitch, England, he had been reported missing in action.

Abernathy flew two Mustangs during the war. The first, "Lady Gwen I, " was borrowed by a squadron mate during a night mission to attack German forces at the Rhine River bridge at Remagen in Germany late in the war. He, and the plane, never returned.

The replica P-51 was designed by Military Aircraft Restoration Corp. of California, the same company which manufactured a replica version of the P-51 flown by the famous "Tuskegee Airmen" and on display at the Des Moines International Airport, near the Iowa National Guard air facility.

Roger Huschem, an independent contractor trucker with Warren Transport Inc. of Waterloo since 1975, hauled the plane to the Grout from suburban Los Angeles. He and Warren donated the time and expense of transporting the plane.

Abernathy has provided an oral history of his war experiences to the Grout, as well as live combat mission footage from the gun camera of his plane.

The Grout expansion, which includes exhibits from all wars in which Iowans have served, from the Civil War to the present, is scheduled to open in mid-November, near Veterans Day and the 66th anniversary of the Sullivans' deaths

Contact Pat Kinney at (319) 291-1484 or Pat.Kinney@wcfcourier.com.