Huey Helicopter

Huey Helicopter. . The helicopter quickly developed a nickname derived from its designation of Bell UH-1 series Iroquois, which came to be pronounced as "Huey." Typically, Hueys had crews of two officer pilots and two enlisted crew members acting as crew chief and door gunners, who both manned M60 machine guns., There were about 12,000 helicopters of all kinds that served in the Vietnam War. Bell Helicopter built 10,005 Hueys from 1957 to 1975. During the Vietnam War 5,086 Hueys were destroyed., This helicopter is a shell built of original Huey helicopter parts. It was assembled by Vietnam veterans and former crew chiefs Mike Paterson and Jerry Staggs with the help and sponsorship of Vietnam veteran and helicopter pilot Bob Ford., Stenciled on the left side of the Huey are two names. One is First Lieutenant Bob Ford, the aircraft commander. The other is of Bob's crew chief, Specialist Fifth Class, Crew Engineer Heidi "Bud" Atanian., When asked about his friend, brother in arms, and crew chief, Bob Ford provided the following heartfelt statement:, Specialist Fifth Class Bud Atanian was the typical outstanding UH-1D crew chief. During his tour of duty in Vietnam with the Black Cats, 1967-1968, he was assigned to one ship-his aircraft. He manned the M60 machine gun on the left side during every mission. His other responsibility of maintaining the helicopter in near-perfect condition was enormously important. Daily preflight and postflight checks after the last mission of the day took 1.5 hours each time. Every time the helicopter shut down during the day, Bud would go over every inch, inspecting each moving part.