Veterans reunited in Plant City with chopper that flew in Vietnam
Tribune Staff
By Dave Nicholson
Published: March 17, 2014
PLANT CITY — Jay Hays remembers the day he left Vietnam and paused to take a last look at the helicopter that had taken him into combat zones dozens of times.
“I thanked God and the helicopter that I’d survived my year and that I was going home in one piece,” he said. “I thought back about what I’d gone through and knew how lucky I was to have made it.”
Hays, 66, said he figured he’d seen the last of the UH-1 “Huey” that had the call sign Bandit 113, when he left Vietnam Nov. 7, 1968.
On Sunday, the former crew chief was reunited with the aging chopper at the Plant City home of Lance Ham, who served with Hays in Vietnam in the 281st Assault Helicopter Co. Hays, Ham and other veterans helped prepare the helicopter for its final mission: a trip to a military museum in Texas.
“It brings back a lot of memories,” said Ham, 68.
The helicopter had decades of service in the Army and Florida National Guard until the fall, when it was declared surplus. Ham stored the helicopter behind his home until Monday, when representatives of the H.E.A.R.T.S. Veterans Museum of Texas picked it up to truck it to Huntsville.
About a half a dozen members of the 281st from various times in Vietnam were on hand as a huge wrecker from Brewington Towing Service loaded it up on a trailer for its journey west.
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