LEWISBURG – Featured in Saturday’s Union County Veterans 4th of July Parade will be five helicopters used during the Vietnam War. The helicopters arrived today at the Country Cupboard in Lewisburg. Ed Hughes of the North Carolina Chapter of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association says they enjoy being invited to the parade.
He says it’s an important community event to attend, “Our current schools do not teach military history. They don’t teach U.S. history, and if we don’t get out and explain what these aircraft did to kids, and we do take them to schools, if we don’t get out and explain it to them, they will never learn about it. None of them know about Vietnam and what went on there. None of them.”
Hughes said helicopters played a critical role in the Vietnam War, “It became the air mobile war in Vietnam. We could move a battalion of troops from one location to another in a matter of minutes. We could be in a fire fight in one location and a sister unit could get into a bigger fire fight somewhere and we could pick up a whole battalion and move them from one place to another. If we knew the enemy was moving in a certain location, we could do what they call an Eagle flight and put a unit in front of them and unit behind them and unit on either side of them, and trap them.”
You can see a photo of the helicopters on our website at www.wkok.com. The Union County Veterans 4th of July Parade is Saturday morning. Find all of the details on their website at www.unioncountyveterans4thofjuly.com. (Ali Stevens)
