|
By Bruce McWilliams
On a quiet January afternoon in Lancashire, England, American
Vietnam veterans Mark Jackson, Fred Alvis, and Ron Paye
were surprised to hear a familiar whoomp-whoomp coming
over the trees. They looked up and saw a Huey UH-1H coming
in for a landing. The Huey, like Fred and Ron, was a veteran
of the 129th Helicopter Assault Company in Vietnam. This
was the first time the three veterans had seen a Huey in
30 years.
Phil Connolly, the man responsible for the restoration
of the Huey, said “the veterans were invited to come
to Lancashire to see the restored Huey 72-21509, which
they thought they would see at the airfield, but we decided
to surprise them. So we sent them off to see an historic
house at nearby Lytham, and while they were being interviewed
by BBC television there, we flew the Huey over the trees
and landed it right in front of them on the lawn.” The
BBC shot the whole scene and the story ran on both national
and international programs on February 7, 2007.
Mark Jackson
tells about the reunion on the 129th website: “Fred
and Ron’s heads snap towards the direction of the sound
just like yours would, too, and then I look. Over the tree
line the ‘509’ appears in the distance and is
making a direct final to the front yard of the Lytham Hall.
Emotions are running reckless at this time and the interviewer
became silent. All eyes, through mist in them, were glued
on the ‘509’ and all ears were tuned to the beautiful
song she was singing to us.
“Gang, I cry as I write
this just replaying it in my mind of that sight and sound
and feelings and, well, just everything that was churning
at that moment. The Lytham Hall, the BBC, the crew, the ladies,
just about everyone around had kept this secret from us that
this is the way we would be introduced to the ‘509.’ Gang,
what a beautiful bird she is. Even Phil Connolly had tears
in his eyes.”
Connolly, a Lancashire businessman whose
firm makes commercial diving equipment, is also an aviation
enthusiast who has collected and flown helicopters for decades.
He wanted to find a Huey to replace an old RAF helicopter
he had been using. He said that “with the general public
becoming more aware of the Vietnam War, and because there
were no Hueys in the U.K., except one taken from the Argentinians
in the Falkland War, I decided to try to find one in the
U.S.”
His search took him first to the Mojave Desert,
but the owner didn’t want to get involved in the problems
of exporting military equipment. He then found out through
Bell Helicopters that there were some Hueys at the Museum
of Flight in Olympia, Washington. Connolly went to Olympia
and met Brian Reynolds, who owns the museum and who had been
restoring Hueys there, one of which had flown in Vietnam.
It was the “509.”
Connolly talked to Reynolds
about his idea and got an enthusiastic reception, the result
of which was an agreement to restore the helicopter and get
it ready and cleared for export to England. It was a long
and complicated process that began in November 2003 to find
the necessary parts and get the restoration completed, the
paperwork cleared for the export of the helicopter, dissemble
it, crate it, and have it flown to London for reassembly
and the flight to Lancashire in July 2005.
Connolly traced
the Huey’s history and found that it
had served in Vietnam in 1972; it still bears the bullet
holes from its action there. He also tracked down the names
of the 35 members of the 129th who had died in Vietnam, among
whom was Mark Jackson’s brother, Lawrence Jackson.
Their names are now displayed on the side of the helicopter.
All the original markings have been put back in place and
the unit emblem is proudly displayed on the nose.
Ron Paye,
who had been a Huey pilot, said he “was touched
that someone from the U.K. saw the importance of restoring
this helicopter. Now we can go back home and tell them, ‘Look
what Phil did in the U.K.’ ”
In its new incarnation, the Huey has a new role: helping
raise money for charities at air shows around the United
Kingdom.
To learn more about the restored Huey, go
to www.huey.co.uk
|
©2006-
2011, Vietnam Veterans of America. All Rights Reserved. 8719 Colesville Road, Suite 100, Silver Spring, MD 20910