The sound of survival: Huey's distinctive 'whop-whop' will be heard again locally, By Ian Thompson/McNaughton Newspapers

The sound of survival: Huey's distinctive 'whop-whop' will be heard
again locally, By Ian Thompson/McNaughton Newspapers

(EXCERPT) VACAVILLE -- Army Spc. 4th Class Reid Rose thought he'd had
it as he saw the spurts of Viet Cong machine gun fire march their way
toward the Huey helicopter in which he was a door gunner.

At the last moment, Rose's Huey lifted off from the hot landing zone,
flaring to one side. The bullets stitched the helicopter's belly,
punching up through the floor, barely missing him.

"As a door gunner, I was told your life in battle averaged 32
seconds," Rose said of his tour in Vietnam, adding he still signed up
for the duty because "I got $50 extra a month."

Nearly 32 years later, Rose will be one of the area's Vietnam veterans
who will remember those years as a Smithsonian Institution-bound UH-1
Huey helicopter named Huey 091 visits the Nut Tree Airport today and
Wednesday.

The Going Home with America's Huey 091 tour will allow local Vietnam
veterans to hear the Huey's distinctive whop-whop that was the
signature sound of the Vietnam War. To many a badly wounded grunt in
Vietnam, the approaching...

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---------------------------
Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com