Lang7/29/26The 2026 Johnson County Fair wrapped up on Wednesday, and one of the new exhibits this year was a booth being run by the Save the Sabre Project, which is raising money privately to help restore and improve the F-86 Sabre Jet memorial in front of the Iowa City Municipal Airport. The jet was installed at the airport’s entrance on South Riverside Drive in 1972 as a memorial to Vietnam prisoners of war. City officials were considering replacing the Sabre with a new memorial, citing increasing maintenance costs and an estimated $10,000 in repairs. But local residents took issue with the idea, and the Save the Sabre Project was born. As of Wednesday morning, the group had raised just over $5,000 toward its $25,000 goal.