Iconic ‘Huey’ helicopter well-known by soldiers in Vietnam

Ever since it was first used in combat in 1962, the UH-1 Huey has become synonymous with the Vietnam War, seen by both veterans and civilians alike as a symbol of the type of warfare faced by soldiers in the jungles of that country. With the distinct whirr of its helicopter blades that can be heard miles before its arrival, the sound of a Huey in flight can attract quite a crowd and -- in the case of the reenactment camp at Camp Victory near Greenwood on July 16 -- a crowd of former Vietnamera combat helicopter pilots.

Around the noon hour on July 16 at Camp Victory, a 1962 UH-1 was flown in from New Richmond by Barry Hammarback, Dave Schmitz and their helicopter crew while reenactors, visitors and former Huey pilots looked on. The crew was present at Camp Victory for about an hour and flew the helicopter around the site several times before leaving for Marshfield to refuel for the return to New Richmond. As the only Huey pilots currently flying in Wisconsin and the surrounding states, Hammarback and Schmitz said they attend many events like the reenactment at Camp Victory and have flown at events at the Highground for the past few years.

“We’re the only Huey flying at this time in the five-state area,” said Hammarback.

“We fly Vietnam events, have flown at Fourth of July parades, 9/11 events, we flew over Minneapolis for one of those,” added Schmitz. “We have been flying at the Highground also since 2016.”

A Vietnam combat helicopter pilot himself, Schmitz has a special affection for flying machines. He was born and raised in Spooner and after college joined the military where he served in Vietnam as a Marine from 1966-67. His journey to the skies was an unusual one, having to be trained by the U.S. Army instead of the Navy where Marine pilots typically receive their training.

“I was with the Marines and the flight school didn’t have enough slots for all of us,” he said. “The Army gave the Marine Corps and Navy slots in their helicopter school. So for a while I was a Marine with the Army and they didn’t know what to do with me.” Though he was a fish out of water in the Army camp, Schmitz took quickly to the skies, earning his Army wings and later his Navy wings when he rejoined the Marines. It was in flight school, he said, that he flew the Huey, graduating to flying the CH-46 Chinook once he got his wings and began serving in Vietnam. “I flew Hueys in flight school,” he said. “I went to helicopter school and then was back in the Marines. I flew the CH-46 and spent a year in Vietnam. I flew for 800 hours and 400 missions.”

Comparing the Huey to the Chinook, Schmitz said the much larger Chinook had a different role to play in the Vietnam War and was often flown in the northern part of the country where rugged mountains proved to be a challenge for the single-bladed Huey.

“This is a Belle helicopter,” he said about the Huey. “The CH-46 was a Chinook. It was a tandem motor, twin

CHEYENNE THOMAS/STAFF PHOTO engines. It could haul 7,000 pounds while the Huey could haul 1,500. Twin engines, tandem rotors, it was bigger. We could haul 22 passengers, the Huey was certified for 12 but we would only ever fly six with gear. The 46 had more power, in the north there were more mountains and the Huey just didn’t have the power to go through there. So we used the 46 up in the mountains. Once in a while you would have to land on one of them.”

During his time in Vietnam, Schmitz flew many missions in the CH-46, with the duties of those missions changing depending on what was needed. Sometimes, he would join other pilots in flying assaults -- coordinated flights of several helicopters that would let off hundreds of troops at once -- other times he would fly in to pick up and drop off reconnaissance teams, fly generals to command bases or fly soldiers out to where they would be returning home. It was, for Schmitz, very exciting.

“Assaults, I didn’t fly a tremendous amount of them, but you would land a group of helicopters together at once, they could be groups of four, six, eight or 12,” he said. “Hueys did the same thing. Medivac, you flew one day a week, I took turns with the other guys and we shared responsibilities with the others in our group. We would fly generals and troops that were going home. We would have recon teams that you would drop off. They were seven-man recon teams. They would go up for five or six days at a time and then they would call to get picked up. You would pull them up with a ladder and fly until you got to a safe landing zone. Sometimes we would pick them up on an emergency extraction, they would call to get picked up for emergencies like being low on ammo, food or water ... It was exciting, every day you didn’t know what was going on. Life was exciting, when I went back (home) there was no excitement. I had to adapt to that.”

But Schmitz never gave up flying. He continued to fly aircraft for the military for the next five years and returned to Spooner in 1975 where he continued to fly, now as a hobby. Moving from helicopters, Schmitz learned how to pilot other aircraft, particularly fixed wing aircraft. It was through this love of aircraft that he met Hammarback, who was interested in World War II era planes.

“Barry and I flew World War II planes, the AT6 and the SNJ,” he said. “This is how we met.”

Over the years, the pair continued to fly aircraft, but it wasn’t until 2015 that they made the decision to buy a Huey. Hammarback was familiar with Schmitz’s experiences with Hueys and after hearing about some for sale in Olympia, Wash., convinced him to give them a look.

“We were at a safety meeting in Minneapolis,” said Schmitz, “And Barry came up to me and said ‘Dave, I need to talk to you.’ I said, ‘OK, after the meeting.’ After the meeting, I asked him what he wanted and he said, ‘You want to buy a Huey?’” Not long after, they traveled to Olympia where the town’s sheriff’s department was selling four of the helicopters. The department, Schmitz said, had gotten the helicopters as surplus from the military many years beforehand and they were retiring them out of service. Looking each one over and viewing the specs on the dates and times of the different parts, they selected one to try and prepared to take it up for a flight -- even though Schmitz had not flown one since his Vietnam days and Hammarback had only 15 hours of helicopter flight experience.

“It was very interesting,” said Hammarback. “I had only just started learning how to fly a helicopter and had 15 hours of flight experience in and Dave hadn’t flown one of these in about 40 years. That first day when we tried to fly it he did not do well. The first hour was rough, they were telling us that maybe we should find someone else to fly it back home for us. But the next day, it was just like riding a bike. Dave pulled it into a rock steady hover and we never looked back.”

They flew that helicopter back home themselves over the next two days, traveling 1,800 miles and using the major highway systems of the states they passed through for navigation, as the instruments were inaccurate and needed adjustment before they could be used. Though the flight could have been treacherous, Schmitz and Hammarback made it back to Wisconsin in one piece and with their special flying machine.

“We had to fly between the mountains to get back home,” said Schmitz. “That can be really nasty, but thankfully the weather was good. We followed the roads to know where we were going. We didn’t have much for navigation.”

Once the Huey was theirs, they contacted anyone they could think of that could help them to keep the HUH-1 flight ready. Soon, they found themselves surrounded by many Vietnam veterans and veterans from other military conflicts who took it upon themselves to help keep the helicopter serviceable.

“It’s been amazing,” said Hammarback. “From the first idea to get this, putting it together and restoring the helicopter. The best part is that the whole group backed us to make it work. Most of them are ex-Army. We have guys who have adopted the Huey and help us out. We now have five pilots that can fly it.”

Since then, the Huey has flown at many an event, and the distinct sound of its rotor blades slicing through the air has attracted the attention of Vietnam veterans at pretty much every place they have gone.

“It’s a standout,” said Hammarback. “Once we get the helicopter back on the ground there are people coming up to us on the ramp.”

For both Hammarback and Schmitz, interacting with those veterans and letting them witness the Huey in flight once again is what makes their work special. Hammarback said he remembers what it was like for family members who served in Vietnam to return home after their service and the rejection they faced even among other war veterans. For them, this is their way of showing respect to those veterans who served their country so many years ago and still struggle with its effects today.

“I had come up for the draft in 1972 but didn’t get in,” he said. “I was very familiar with the situation (in Vietnam) and I wanted to go in to fly jets. But I had a cousin who was in Special Forces, he was a Ranger in the 82nd Airborne and he did three tours. In 1972 he told me, ‘Don’t go. It’s not pretty. Everyone can tell we are going out. You won’t get a good job if you come here. You will just be handed a rifle and and they will say, have fun.’ When he came home, it was bad, same with the Legion for a while. It was so bad that my dad quit the Legion and the VFW because they did not support those guys coming back. What Dave and I came up with is a way to pay those veterans back. We’re paying attention and tell them that it is safe to tell their stories.”