NEW HOME FOR OLD HUEYS
The UH-1 “Huey” helicopter, one of the most recognizable symbols of the Vietnam War, continues to stir memories more than 60 years after American troops first heard the old workhorse’s distinctive whop, whop, whop as it approached for air support, the insertion of reinforcements, mail delivery or medical evacuation. “It can be a love-hate relationship,” said Huey pilot Phil Marshall, who was a 21-year-old warrant officer with the 237th Medical Detachment and
continues to fly the chopper as a volunteer with a nonprofit organization founded to rehabilitate old Hueys and build a museum in Peru, Indiana. “The sound is something you will never forget. It can bring back good and bad memories, so it can be traumatic.”
Marshall was shot in the arm during a night mission extracting three seriously wounded soldiers. That incident sent him home, but it didn’t end his love affair with the aircraft.
The feelings many veterans have about the Huey are “not something you can explain,” said Melvyn “Mel” Lutgring. “It just becomes a part of you.”
Lutgring, a Louisiana native who served with the 174th Assault Helicopter Company at Chu Lai in northern South Vietnam from June to November 1971, said that special attachment might have something to do with the bonds that men forged on the battlefield. “You can’t buy that kind of brotherhood for any amount of money in the world,” he said. “The Huey brings that all back.”
Lutgring loved being a crew chief on the machine, praised for its light construction, high maneuverability and reliability. “You could get it flying again with duct tape and bailer twine if you had to,” he said.
