In June 1942, a captured Messerschmitt Bf-109 was exhibited in a former Racine park just north of this location, inspiring Bob Goebel, a young Army Air Corps recruit. A Racine native, Goebel went on to become a double-ace with the 31st Fighter Group in Italy and later authored the book "Mustang Ace: Memoirs of a P-51 Fighter Pilot." The same Messerschmitt that appeared here in 1942 is now on exhibit at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, England.