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Nov
7, 8:20 PM "One man came up, left a bouquet of flowers, put his hand on it and
started to cry," said Maurice Meisner, co-chairman of the Veterans
Memorial Center. "I didn't think it would be such an emotional
thing."
Wanting to draw attention to its little-known center, military museum and
library, the veterans decided to acquire and display the Huey. A Cobra
attack helicopter later will be added to the display.
Hueys were the workhorses during the Vietnam War. This one was used by
the Army, then went on to serve Air America, the so-called private airline
run by the CIA in Southeast Asia until the mid-1970s.
The sight of the helicopter in such a high-profile position has piqued
the interest of Vietnam veterans, sending some of them scrambling to check
serial numbers and find old logbooks to determine if they ever flew aboard
the craft.
Some of them will gather at a dedication ceremony Saturday.
Victor "Chuck" Antienowicz drove from Edgewater, eager to
rediscover part of his past.
"It looks just like it did 31 years ago," said Antienowicz, who
served with the Army's 17th Air Cavalry, H Troop in Vietnam. "It brings
back memories of the missions we were on. It's weird, you see Hueys all the
time, but this is one we were on."
Records obtained by the Veterans Center, shows that helicopter 71-20139
was delivered to the Army in June 1972. By August, it was one of about five
being used by the H Troop of the 17th Air Cavalry in Vietnam. The records
show that from March 1973, the helicopter was on loan to NASA, when actually
it was in service with Air America, according to pilots who flew for the
organization. Their logs show the helicopter number, the flight time and
destination.
"I can go down the street and see a Huey, but I suppose the fact
that it's one I flew does bring back some memories," said Sam Slaughter
of Tampa, who piloted Hueys with H Troops and who expects to at the
dedication. "It's going to elicit a lot of different thoughts. It's
memories, probably some good, probably some bad."
Antienowicz said he is certain he flew on this particular machine as a
door gunner. Two soldiers had been killed and the crew was sent to recover
the bodies.
"We had to go down and pick up the bodies with that
helicopter," he said. "As we were landing, the base got rocked
with mortar and rockets. We had to get out of there real fast."
Pilots switched around to whatever aircraft was available. Some said they
could not be certain of what aircraft they flew at particular times, but
because there were only four or five Hueys in the unit, most likely flew in
it, said Dennis Watson, who was executive officer of H Troop until his tour
ended Aug. 9, 1972.
"It depended on what was available," said Watson, who lives in
Alabama. "You danced with the dog, and you danced with the beauty
queen."
Young pilots in the war typically would not likely have kept a log
showing the identification number of the aircraft they flew, Watson said.
The Army kept track of the flight time of the crews, but would not have
included identifying numbers from the planes.
"It represents one that we flew every day," Watson said.
"Of my 26 years flying any number of aircraft, that's the one I know I
can put my hand on and say I flew that aircraft in Vietnam."
To some it really didn't matter that they remember exact stories about
being in a particular aircraft at a specific time. To Mike Lynch, who
traveled from Santa Clara, Calif., for the dedication, it is enough that it
was part of the troop. Lynch was 18 and just out of high school when he went
to Vietnam.
"We did it and just came home and didn't see these guys for nearly
32 years," Lynch, a crew chief on the helicopter, said as he and
Antienowicz reacquainted. "As soon as I heard, I said, 'I'm going to
Florida.' "
When the center acquired the helicopter, organizers had no idea it would
capture such attention from veterans. The veterans center did a search and
quickly found the history, including Brevard residents who were connected to
the helicopter.
There were about 18,000 UH-1s built, said Lou Rossi, chairman of the
Brevard County Veterans Council.
"It's really amazing to get the aircraft, but even more amazing to
get the people," Rossi said as some of the five or six former crew
members on the helicopter expected began arriving on Merritt Island. Others
live in the area.
It took William Hutchison of Rockledge only a few minutes to check the
serial number of the helicopter to recite from his pilot's log the days and
times he flew it for Air America: Nov. 2, 5 and 9, 1974, he read from his
log.
"Those particular days it had to be ICCS," he said. "It
was maybe an East German or a Polish doctor."
The International Commission of Control and Supervision was set up as
monitor for the Paris Peace Accords of 1973. Air America pilots would pick
up the monitors in the Hueys, painted white with the ICCS lettering, and
take the monitors to different locations across Southeast Asia.
"They were war referees," Hutchison said. "They were
monitoring."
Another Brevard resident, Marius Burke, flew the same aircraft for about
60 hours in Vietnam as part of Air America. He was part of Air America from
1963 until the fall of Saigon on April 29, 1975, when he coordinated
civilian evacuation from rooftops.
According to the records, the display helicopter, serial 71-20139, shows
the same designation as on loan to NASA as when it was used by Air America
until July 1975.
This article appeared online on November 7, 2003 |
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