Posted on 12/22/2005 6:12:57 AM PST by indcons
Finding a package on the doorstep is usually a pleasant surprise this time of year. Tate Jones showed up for work Wednesday and found a Vietnam War-era Huey helicopter waiting for him.
The Rocky Mountain Museum of Military History was actually expecting the delivery, although the timing was fuzzy. It took benefactor Hayes Otoupalik most of Tuesday to line up transport for the helicopter.
“They had her up in the air again for a while,” Otoupalik said of the effort to move the helicopter from his Evaro Hill home to Fort Missoula. The UH1H gunship had rested there since 1993, when the U.S. Army delivered it to Otoupalik for eventual placement in a museum. On Tuesday, it took a crane to get it on a flatbed truck for the short ride back to town.
In 2002, Otoupalik learned from a friend about searching for the serial number of military equipment on the Internet. He tried it with the Huey and found a Web site dedicated to its activity. In it, he learned that an Army pilot named Mike Jones flew it almost daily for a year in Vietnam.
“He said it was the weakest of the five (helicopters) they had, so they always put it in the lead of the formation so the other birds could help it out,” Otoupalik said of an exchange of letters with Jones. “It came as a total shock to him that his bird had survived in a small little museum in western Montana.”
(Excerpt) Read more at missoulian.com ...
ping
MilHist ping
"Huey" saved Dad's life in Vietnam...God bless "Huey" and all her crews!
Aviation ping.
"The UH1H gunship"
That's no "gunship". That's a "slick" Huey. Judging by it's orange cargo door it was last used for pilot training.
Yup, sure is, and Gun Ships were generally "B" Models, not "H". I got six jumps out of H models.
We also had UH-1M or "Mike" gunships in my last UH-1 unit.
Forgot to say: All the way, Sir!
(1/507th PIR school cherry jumper; became a pilot after that).
Roger the Mike Model. Me? 2/325...."White Falcons, SIR!" I'm only 5'4", couldn't get into choppers except as a/c. Stayed 11B/E.
Always have to go outside and look up whenever I hear the Wop, Wop flying over the neighborhood here in Houston.
There is no spund like a flareing Huey sound.
Nothing like being lulled to sleep by the sounds of Hueys taking off & landing!!
Owned, in great part, by MRS. Ladybird Johnson. One good reason for Johnson to have Kennedy killed so that the war could go on.
Huey-Avionics (35K20) ping!
cool
Huey was owned in great part by Ladybird.
(oops)
ping.
Its in a lot better shape than the one in the museum in Saigon.
That one is pretty well stripped.
Bush heading there this year!
They might have even offered one of "theirs". POD shipping, of course.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
