Rome Vietnam memorial

Rome Vietnam memorial

Vietnam War era helicopter arrives in Rome to become a part of Vietnam War memorial.

Here'sit traveled over a thousad miles across the country to here in the mohawk valley where it will be put on display.

News channel 2's brent kearney reports "we were expecting a 30 or 40 motorcycle escort and i lost track at a hundred."

Its been a long trip for this vietnam era huey helicopter.

As it arrived with hundreds of motorcycles escorting it in.

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None .

None "this has been an ongoing acquisition for a little over a year now.

Ever since we dedicated our memorial in may of 2019.

We've had a dream of putting a helicopter at a memorial location."

"the helicopter traveled over a thousand miles from missouri to here at griffis in rome.

The huey was purchased by the vietnam memorial fund for 35 thousand dollars by a private owner in missouri.

The fund plans to put it on display at the vietnam memorial at griffiss in rome.

But first it needs a makeover, and the mechanics that will be doing it are local mvcc students.

"i think its awesome, for the class its nice we can use it for instruction than we would do otherwise but they get to do it on a live aircraft and its something that will be on display so that the whole general public can see the end result and all the effort they put into it.

And just the fact that its representing the vietnam era is pretty cool too."

Parts including these massive rotors were shipped with the aircraft.

Mvcc aviation program director walt costantini is looking forward to starting the project.

"quite a bit and we will spend months on it.

Its in better shape than i thought it was going to be so it wont be as big of a project as i thought."

But when its done, they're expecting it to be quite the site.

"oh its gonna look awesome mvcc is going to totally restore it for us.

Its going to be put back as a navy vietnam seawolf gunship.

We've already got rocket pods made for it we've got mini guns made for it.

So yea its going to look awesome."

The organization is in need of donations due to the covid 19 pandemic.

If you're interested in donating, we will have a link on our website at wktv.com.

In rome brent kearney news channel 2>