A restored Bell UH-1D helicopter, more commonly known as a Huey, has a place of honor at the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial and Museum in Holmdel Vietnam War veteran Carl Burns’ essay “Hangar Crew” tells the story of restoring a long-forgotten helicopter that has since found a home at the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial and Museum in Holmdel.
Burns, of Manalapan, and a group of veterans restored a Bell UH-1D helicopter, which is more commonly known as a Huey.
The vintage 1960s helicopters provided troops with support on a daily basis during the fighting in southeast Asia.
Starting in March 2013, the men dedicated every Monday to cleaning and repairing the Huey. The job took 14 months and was completed in a hangar at the Monmouth Executive Airport, Wall Township.
Burns won first place for his essay in the New Jersey Veterans Administration local phase of the National Veterans Creative Arts Competition, which took place from Jan. 1 through March 27. He humbly gave credit to the 30 or so men who helped to restore the Huey.
Carl Burns “It was the most amazing experience of a group of guys getting together,” Burns said. “It was more than bonding, more than a brotherhood. It was a camaraderie.”
The men who worked to restore the Huey came to call themselves the “Hangar Crew.”
Sarah Hagarty has firsthand experience regarding the restoration of the helicopter. She is an employee of the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation.
Hagarty said being a witness to the connection the veterans shared was special, but nothing compared to what the veterans must have felt.
“To the guys who restored the Huey, it meant so much more,” she said. “They had such a deep bond and connected on a completely different level.”
The restored helicopter was dedicated to the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial and Museum in May 2014. The museum’s website refers to the Huey as the symbol of U.S. combat forces in Vietnam. Burns said it was special to see the reaction of the people who attended the dedication and were seeing the restored helicopter in person for the first time.
“It is a thing of beauty to have the Huey at the memorial,” he said. “Everybody was excited and found it fantastic once we all saw it.”
In his essay, Burns described the meaning of restoring a helicopter that became a symbol of America’s presence in Vietnam. In part, he wrote, “We shared mixed emotions of pride in a job well done and some sorrow that the job was done.”
People who visit the museum love seeing the Huey, Hagarty said. Once veterans see it, they immediately swap stories and share the memories they made over the years.
“Now, every time veterans come in, they have an instant reaction to the Huey,” she said. “It has so many deep-seated meanings and brings such healing to them. They feel right at home.”
The members of the “Hangar Crew” now share new memories on a regular basis. Burns said that the crew still meets once a month at the bar they went to while they were working to restore the Huey.
“About 12 to 20 of us go to talk and laugh about the days in the hangar,” he said. “About 90 percent of our conversation is about those days.”