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everybody's attention.
the civilian in the group!
the parts that we've got there
the biggest possible impact.
that much right now.
We'll just blow it up
and take it apart again.
There's probably gray-headed
screws, and we can't find them.
Put the floor in enough
so we can stand on it.
Inside diameter
of the cart is 43.
The mast is ready to be slid
into place, 'cause it'll travel
without the greenhouses and
without the chin bubbles.
to bring it up and make it
look like it did in Vietnam.
traveling exhibition
on the year 1968 in American
culture and politics.
We chose this year, the most
turbulent and volatile really,
in 20th century
American history,
really in world history.
kind of all condensed
and collapsed
into that one year.
of shocking events, really.
as disorderly.
they rushed the parade float.
on a really kind of hopeful
and quiet note in December.
Apollo 8 is launched.
That left people feeling
a little bit more hopeful
about the future.
It all kind of condensed and
compressed into this single year
and we took it upon ourselves
to see if we could do that
in a 3-dimensional exhibit.
We will be able to drive up
to the back of the helicopter,
the aft section in.
We're challenged
to start out the exhibit
and I took on the project
and was assigned find
a Huey helicopter,
and make if portable so that
it can travel with the exhibit.
Most of the guys
that had the real experience
are Vietnam vets.
there's 3 or 4 pilots,
were crew chiefs,
and then some other guys
that had served.
unique group of volunteers,
and they are intensely familiar
with this helicopter.
They know it, every nut and
bolt, what needs to be here.
Okay, well, go to work!
We happened
in Olympia, Washington.
The airframe is damaged on it.
that we have are airworthy,
a nonflyable Huey
and making it
even more nonflyable.
Attempting to do is fabricate a
hinge for the left pilot door.
Okay, aft section coming at ya!
We'll just add a little filler.
We're about 3
or 4 inches on this side off.
Center point here
versus center point there.
See right where this one
would go right here,
that one goes over there.
This is part of the intake
for the engine,
I'm just trying to clean it up.
down for United States Army.
that we have to deal with.
everything's connected.
Okay, we're good enough for a
Huey that's not going to fly.
is a national traveling exhibit,
and through doors.
And this helicopter has to fit
through this opening.
Now, a Huey helicopter
is 13 foot 6 tall,
and it's about 8 foot 6 wide.
So one of our engineering
challenges has been
to make it in enough pieces
so it'll fit through this door.
Of course, the Huey helicopter
is built in one piece.
We've already decided where are
the good places to cut it
and to make joints
that will go back together
when it's reassembled
We're just putting the stuff
all together to have it on here.
compass correction cards,
they're going to go
on the instrument panel.
This project started to attract
attention of a bunch of guys
that had some airplane
experience.
with a few of them before
for the History Center
in Minnesota's Greatest
Generation Exhibit, the C-47.
Then they wanted us to work on
this, and we put out the word,
and we added more guys
from the Vietnam era,
who knew all about it;
pilots, mechanics, crew chiefs,
and the rest of it, and it's
a group that's bonded together
their stories in this way,
and it's a great experience.
goes in over there.
I was pretty excited about it,
and every Wednesday I come down
to meet with the guys
and to work on it;
it's been really a kind of
a love of working with,
on the machine again and
bringing back my memory.
questions about this,
so I have to try to recollect.
Of course, I keep everything,
so I have all my old manuals
and such like that, and to be
working with a bunch of guys
that I've been working with
is just tremendous.
Choosing a helicopter to
represent in the exhibit,
we chose to re-create a medivac,
specifically because
and not taking them.
that in the museum.
if you talk to all these guys,
that's what their job was.
Sure they had to shoot,
but at the same time,
their job was to save lives.
Vietnamese and American troops
keep supply lines open,
while attacking a huge Vietcong
installation,
for the assault wave.
(man) It was a difficult part of
life, obviously.
before I was drafted, my wife
was 7-1/2 months pregnant
when I left for Vietnam.
and certainly not unique
to that many of us, had that,
I found the military difficult,
because I really
didn't want to be there,
into service at the end.
by just a lot of hard work.
as a helicopter company.
We kept busy, and I know
what I did was important
and getting home.
motivation in Vietnam,
was to keep guys alive,
even though
and they didn't know who I was.
I wasn't going to hang around.
I got out of there as fast
as I could get out of there.
thrilled about this
traveling around the country
and seeing this
because I think Vietnam War
is misunderstood in many ways,
and hopefully this
will bring some understanding
to that period of time.
on the fact that most of us,
and I associate and know
a lot of Vietnam vets,
all were successful in life.
It doesn't mean that we're
millionaires or anything,
raised families.
And the memory of those
who didn't make it, we
owe it to them to be successful
in life and work hard.
And that's just a very good way
of honoring them.
They didn't get to do
what I've done,
children, have a good job,
do what I'm doing today,
as an old man.
(newsman)
79 of them seriously.
Before the parade, mass draft
card burning was urged.
to fan out on a wide perimeter
to flush out
rebel Vietcong positions.
We're still today arguing
and the protests.
We're still today arguing
about why we were in Vietnam.
It's not a closed subject,
unlike World War II.
These fractures, these fissures
through American society.
We saw it in the election of
2008, when you got
kind of the old and the new
running against each other
and the sort of polarities
of American society
that we feel today so strongly.
Well, the roots
of that really are in 1968.
Short guys in the front.
Old short guys in the front.
I'll even get down.
I can't get up!
it's about the story.
a big deal for a lot of people
that when grandpa can go
over and say, I was here.
That's touching,
and it's meaningful.
I get that from these guys,
that what they're doing
in what this represents.
And there's going to be
some very powerful stories
having this in an exhibition.
Wait for the flash.
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