On a foggy August morning in 1959, smoke billowed from a barge near Milwaukee’s Jones Island. A plane crashed there, killing the two pilots instantly.
Ambulance alarms rang through the city as firefighters rushed to the scene, and a crowd formed to watch the incident. Among those in the crowd was 8-year-old Jeff Taylor.
“If you hear sirens all over the place, there's something happening. So we got in the car, headed down to Jones Island and saw the thing,” Taylor says. “It's one of the last memories I have of my dad. I mean, he died eight months later. So it's kind of a milestone piece of time in my history.”
But today, when Taylor asks people about the crash, he gets a lot of blank stares.
“Everybody looks at me like I'm nuts when I talk to them about it,” Taylor says.
So Taylor reached out to Bubbler Talk, asking us to look into the crash. We not only found the crash he remembered but uncovered a hidden connection to Milwaukee’s annual Air and Water Show.
A hero’s fall from the sky
On Aug. 5, 1959, a thick fog blanketed Milwaukee. Suddenly, an F-89D Scorpion, a type of military plane, came screaming down from the sky at nearly 200 mph.
The plane belonged to the Wisconsin Air National Guard, and the pilots were experienced. Col. Seymour Levenson was one of the founders of the Wisconsin Air Guard and a veteran of both World War II and the war in Korea. His co-pilot and radar observer, Lt. Robert Goham, had logged more than 1,000 flying hours.
Bill Streicher, president of the Friends of the Mitchell Gallery of Flight museum at the Milwaukee airport, says given the fog, the two likely thought they were much higher above ground than they really were.
“Probably was the result of an instrumentation issue. In other words, the altimeter on the airplane was giving Colonel Levenson false altitude readings as he was approaching the airport for landing from the north,” Streicher says.
The plane crashed into a barge near Jones Island, killing both Levenson and Goham. Nobody else died, though a few workers nearby sustained injuries. The resulting fire brought crews from all over the city to put out the flames.
But the next day, both the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Sentinel labeled Levenson and Goham as heroes. While the crash caused much commotion, it is speculated that Levenson knew they were going down and swerved to avoid both a densely populated Bay View neighborhood and caches of gasoline and dynamite on Jones Island. Crashing into any of these nearby targets likely would have meant far more casualties.

Taylor remembers hearing rumors of heroism that day.
“The guy steered the thing into this ship to avoid the plane crash into all those oil tanks down there in Jones Island and probably take out half of Bay View along with it,” Taylor said. “I was 8 years old — that's superhero stuff.”
Today, when driving to the Mitchell Airport’s departure and arrival terminals, you can see an old B-25 bomber on your left. The aircraft is a memorial to both Gen. Billy Mitchell, the airport’s namesake, and Col. Seymour Levenson.

A tradition of military air shows
But this isn’t Levenson’s only lasting impact on Milwaukee. He also played a role in Milwaukee’s long history of military air shows.
In 1949 — 10 years before the crash and four years after the end of World War II — the Air National Guard hosted an open house. This included a mock battle staged to simulate an invasion of Milwaukee, with Col. Levenson flying one of the planes defending the city.
The Milwaukee Journal said of the event: “Milwaukeeans will have a chance Sunday to see their city attacked and defended by air. The attack early Sunday afternoon will be by B-26 bombers and F-51 fighters from the 176th Fighter Squadron in Madison, according to Lieutenant Colonel Seymour Levenson, deputy group commander.”

Later, the Milwaukee Journal estimated that around 25,000 people attended the open house.
One of those was a young Bill Streicher, now the president of the Friends of the Mitchell Gallery of Flight. In helping Bubbler Talk with this story, he solved a family mystery.
“I happen to remember a family photograph and an album of me at an air show that my parents had dated on the back in November 1949. I could never figure out why I was at an air show in Milwaukee in November? Now I know,” Streicher says.
The 1949 Milwaukee Journal noted that the jet planes were a big hit, particularly among children. The piece ended with an account of one “straw-haired lad of 10,” who, while watching the air battle take place, proclaimed to his mother that he wanted to be a jet pilot.

Streicher adds that military air shows like this have a long history throughout the country and have remained popular for many reasons.
“Military air shows, I think, have probably existed ever since military aircraft began appearing in the skies around the United States,” Streicher says. “I think there's a certain segment of the population that just loves, loves to see [...] the latest equipment. And then there's also an element of patriotism where people come out to support the military.”

The continued popularity, and controversy, of military air shows
Military air shows remain popular attractions today, for similar reasons to the 1940s.
The Navy’s Blue Angels recently performed as part of Milwaukee’s annual Air and Water Show, drawing a crowd of thousands for the 2025 show. Milwaukee’s lakefront filled with groups of friends and family with drinks, snacks and picnic blankets in tow.
Akin to Streicher’s assessment of reasons for their continued popularity, people at the air show most often cite patriotism, continuing family traditions or just a desire to see cool planes do cool things.
Jon Kusch, who says he has been coming to the show since he was a child, says he’s always been interested in military aircraft and enjoys returning to see them in action.
“I came out here today because I love seeing the different planes, especially the military aircraft,” Kusch says. “I’ve always been interested in that kind of stuff, so it’s great to see it live.”
Similarly, Jeff Halloway says he loves to see what new technology the military can display, and that the event instills patriotism within him.
“They have been tested and trained and can fly within inches of each other in a very poetic dance,” he says. “It’s a privilege to be an American, and I am proud that they are part of the military protecting us.”
However, not everyone is a fan. Ekene Ikegwuani, a member of the Milwaukee Anti-War Alliance, notes that he understands the appeal. But he says the fun of the show is designed to boost military recruitment by making war look cool.
“They're doing cool tricks, it's fun,” Ikegwuani says. “But basically what they're doing is they're painting this image in the minds of youth, teenagers, young adults that ... this is fun, and the way you do it is by joining the U.S. military. But when they’re in the military, they are not always doing stunts — they’re fighting in wars and dropping bombs.”
Ikegwuani says this kind of propaganda can be powerful precisely because it associates the military with fun and excitement. Additionally, he says this recruitment strategy extends beyond air shows, including one of his favorite movies from childhood.
“Same way that I have childhood memories of watching Top Gun,” Ikegwuani says. “It’s a fun movie where they're flying planes. But it's also a real military base that exists. Those are real people that are fighting in wars.”
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