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IF NEXT YEAR you see a large helicopter on display around Ireland bearing US military insignia and Vietnam war-era mechanics, there’s a reason.
Listowel-based man Pádraig Nolan is currently preparing his workshop to restore a Vietnam combat Huey Helicopter in tribute to John O’Sullivan, an Irishman and the second most-decorated helicopter pilot of the Vietnam War.
O’Sullivan, who died in 2013, did three tours of Vietnam and was shot down 19 times. “But he’s virtually unheard of here in Ireland,” Nolan told TheJournal.ie.
Nolan hopes this restoration could help raise O’Sullivan’s profile in his native Ireland. “Over 2,000 Irish men served with the us army in Vietnam,” Nolan said. “The Irish have a long history of fighting in the US army”.
Nolan’s Listowel restoration group located a disused Vietnam combat Huey – tail number 201 and which later saw action during the Gulf War in 1991 – in Tulsa, Oklahoma. From there it was towed to Ozark, Alabama.
Next month, the Huey will travel to Savannah, Georgia, for a transatlantic crossing by ship to Rotterdam and Cork.
Conflict
The Vietnam War lasted from 1955 to the fall of Saigon in 1975.
By 1959, US involvement in the conflict between North and South Vietnam had increased. In 1965, nearly 200,000 US troops were stationed in Vietnam which – as the 1960s drew to a close – was increasingly opposed at home as large swathes of the American population were galvanised in direct opposition to a conflict that ultimately claimed the lives of over 50,000 US soldiers.
The Huey helicopter, measuring 47 feet long, became a symbol of American military presence in Indochina during the 60s and 70s with an estimated 2,500 “choppers” deployed to Vietnam.
Nolan, readying his restoration, is keen to stress that his Huey project is not celebrating the Vietnam conflict.
“We are not glorifying war. We’re not glorifying what the US army did in certain areas of Vietnam,” said Nolan, who is fronting the Huey’s restoration along with donations.
“We want to tell people in Ireland that Irish people – even though we’re a neutral country – when it comes to war we have fought way beyond our abilities”.
‘On Display’
Former US Army Vietnam helicopter crew Chief Michael Carroll, who also restored a Huey from Vietnam, will meet Listowel’s restoration group to share his experience restoring a Huey that flew in Vietnam, says Nolan.
Carroll, who did active service in Vietnam, later settled on a ranch in Loxahatchee, Florida. Ten year ago, he learned of the corroding remains of a Vietnam helicopter among artifacts used in exercises at the County Sheriff gun range.
After two years of restoration work, his own 425 Huey was brought back its to original wartime condition. Vietnam veterans have since brought it to events across Florida and the United States.
Carroll plans to travel to Ireland this winter while the restoration in Tralee takes place, according to Nolan.
The Huey is set to arrive in Ireland next month from where it will be transported to Tralee for restoration this winter.
“What we intend to do is get all the internal light working, the navigation lights working. So when she’s on display she’ll be lit up,” Nolan said.
Once restored, Nolan plans to display the Huey in public and tour it around the country.
Soon, he adds, this 201 helicopter will become Dolphin 428, the chopper flown by John O’Sullivan in combat, which was shot down during the Vietnam War.
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Cool.. I love the Huey UH-1 helicopter, a great work horse .. if anyone is interested in hueys or the vietnamese war .. read the book “chickenhawk” by Robert Mason.. excellent read
@THE BIRD: yes one
@THE BIRD: yes one of the best books over ever read. I’d second that recommendation.
@THE BIRD: if you ever get a chance to visit Vietnam they are dotted in military museums all over the place. They do have some amazing museums there. Hard to pick where would be best display I saw so many.
Bit of a history nut. when you visit the battlefields you really do get a sense of what was terrifing to both sides. From the damaged citadel in Hue to B52 raids on Hanoi to the Cu Chi tunnel complex.
One can understand anyone in siagon not wishing to live under communism. But the country would never have been able to survive on its own anyway. The USA should never have been involved but so too China and the USSR. The people of Vietnam suffered for ideology.
@THE BIRD: Great read. I’d recommend Dispatches by Michael Herr & Nam by Mark Baker too. From a Vietnamese perspective, When heaven and earth changed places by Le Ly Hayslip is well worth a read.
@Clifford Brennan: thanks I’ll keep it mind.. love a good book
@Sean: ya its brilliant. Well worth the read
@James O Donoghue: thanks James.. would love to go there and see it all.. hopefully some day
@THE BIRD: We Were Soldiers Once And Young is a great read too, dont mind the film, which only covers half the book and tacks on a fake victory at the end. Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes is a novel written by a guy who served as a lieutenant. Brilliantly written, very immersive. Check it out if good fiction interests you.
@Squiddley Diddley: will do thanks for that ..
I’d say the reason he isn’t talked about is that he fought three tours , so wasn’t drafted, in an unjust war even most Americans agree shouldn’t have been fought
@Darren Byrne: That has nothing to do with it. Ireland weren’t involved in the Vietnam war so how would you have heard of him?
@Mark O Brien: People heard about things overseas before the internet.
@Squiddley Diddley: Never said they didnt.
@Mark O Brien: “Ireland weren’t involved in the Vietnam war so how would you have heard of him.” Your words, which seem to suggest we would have had no knowledge of events or personalities involved with the Vietnam War.
Brilliant, a trophy to an unjust war with countless Vietnamese butchered by the u.s forces, war crimes including chemical weapons just brushed aside, but sure he has Irish heritage so its ok.
@Mr Bordello: Theres always one …………
@Robert Preston: Make that two.
@Mr Bordello: they were doing it for Robert Preston’s freedom and stuff.
@Robert Preston: make that three .
@Mr Bordello: This country would have nothing if it wasn’t for the yanks! We’d all be back picking spuds and standing in the dole queue! Get a grip!
@Isabel Oliveira: Four
Horrible. War fetishization at its worst. How many people were murdered by the pilots of this machine and the soldiers it carried? Scrap the bloody thing or even better burn it in front of the American embassy
@De20: its a helicopter, it didn’t kill anybody.
Saw 2 of these birds up close while in Florida at St Augustine airport, They left before I took off.
While heading down towards Daytona along the beach the 2 of them flew under me side by side tracking towards Jacksonville.
Was like something you see in a movie also saw a few Black hawks but they don’t have the iconic look that the Huey has.
@Dave Byrne: Charlie Don’t Surf…
@EdmundOrlando: That’s coming back to the cinemas shortly.
@Squiddley Diddley: another cut?
@Seamus Mac: This one is called The Final Cut. I guess we’ll see.
I was in Vietnam for the last 2 years , and the locals refer to it as the American War !
The Vietnam war was a war caused by the US, the US has been in one war or another since its foundation. So why would war machines be fascinating when they are killing machines?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolefisher/2018/05/28/the-shocking-health-effects-of-agent-orange-now-a-legacy-of-military-death/#4aae6f9621c6
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_Agent_Orange_on_the_Vietnamese_people
Had the pleasure flying in one in Cyprus a few years ago from the UN base in Nicosia. Very noisy, very fast but loads of fun!!
I met John when I did a research interview for Anne Roper’s documentary The Green Fields of Vietnam, about the Irish born people who fought in that war. Many were drafted due to their status as recent immigrants.
@Willie White: The draft was very unfair. Those lucky enough to be born into families with advantages in life had many ways to dodge it, like Trump and Bush. Yet they were so desperate for men they sent people with the mental age of children. McNamaras Morons is what the scheme was nicknamed ( ever wondered how an army could accept Forrest Gump), but it’s true and pretty horrible.
https://youtu.be/_J2VwFDV4-g
@Squiddley Diddley: you forgot to mention bill clinton & joe biden, im sure it was accidental.
@Seamus Mac: Them too, good call.
47 feet long… that’s a big bird…
A brilliant project, but in tribute to someone who was shot down 19! times is asking for trouble.
@Wil Colahan: You should read up on him. He was some man!
@Wil Colahan: In Trumpland he’s defo no war hero… the orange one has sleepless nights over this stuff..
*Fortunate Son plays*
This is a sick project. “Over 2,000 Irish men served with the us army in Vietnam,” This is nothing to be proud of. The US war against the freedom fighters of Vietnam in which over three Million Vietnamese people died, and millions more were injured or poisoned by Agent Orange, was the equivalent of the Black and Tans being used against the Irish War for Independence. Children are still being born in Vietnam with dreadful birth defects due Agent Orange, and farmers are still being killed by mines and other munitions leftover from this dreadful war.
@Edward Horgan: restoring a helicopter is not the same as dropping agent orange on civilians. Get a grip.
Fair play to ya!!
The first choice helicopter pilot for filmmakers in Ireland over the years. The advent of Drones have put a stop to this type of work for pilots.
Roll on November looking forward to travelling to Vietnam.
A stupid idea!
A relic of a failed mission.
A symbol of American hegemony.
An ornament of destruction.
55000 Americans perished.
Millons of Citizens of Vietnam were on the receiving end of a US Jackhammer
Theres no difference beyween this and an M16 rifle -both were used by a first world nation to butcher an impoverished third world one, simply because they exercised their human right to decide what form of government was best for their peoples needs.
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