DAVIDSON ARMY AIRFIELD, Va. - Other than some tears and good-humored teasing about hanging on to the last UH-1 "Huey" in the Army's inventory, it was an unremarkable day as the D.C. National Guard's legendary helicopter lifted off for its final flight here.
It was replaced last week by the arrival of the D.C. Guard's first UH-60 Blackhawk.
"It's the end of an era," said Army Sgt. George Wagner, production control manager for the 121st Medical Company.
The last remaining Huey is close to four decades old. The Army's first Hueys saw combat in Vietnam beginning in the 1960s. "I cut my teeth on the Huey in 2000 when I became a crew chief," Wagner said.
Reminiscing about its legacy, Wagner said the Huey reminds him of lines from the movie "We Were Soldiers," a 2002 film that dramatizes the Battle of Ia Drang in 1965.
The movie depicts how the Army developed the Huey to transform the 1st Cavalry Division into an unconventional infantry unit. The primary purpose of the Huey during Vietnam was to transport troops into battle for the air assault division.
"In 1964, it was the new technology," Wagner said. "It has withstood the test of time."
More than 17,000 Huey's were bought by the Army, many times more than any other helicopter, according to Army Lt. Col. Maureen Bellamy, DCNG State Army aviation officer.
"Many more thousands of people flew Hueys or had a memorable ride in one in combat," she said. "Every time we brought a Huey to an air show, it would draw a crowd of people with a smile and a memory to share."
The DC Guard, which first acquired the UH-1 in late 1973, had two Hueys left this past year, but had to keep getting Army approval to continue using them. Most Hueys have been replaced by the UH-60 Black Hawk or the UH-72 Lakota, which was fielded in 2009 to the DCNG's 121st MC at Davison Army Airfield adjacent to Fort Belvoir, Va.
"The Huey is a venerable icon of the Vietnam era, but it's also a veteran of every conflict since, up to the Global War on Terror," Bellamy said. "Hueys could be found in almost every corner of the world."
Even when it became too outdated for combat, the Huey remained an ideal aircraft for domestic operations," she said.
"Our Hueys deployed to Fort Hood and four other installations to provide [medical evacuation] backfill for a year as part of Operation Noble Eagle," she said. "We flew our Hueys to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to support rescue efforts after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We took them to fly the Southwest Border in Operation Jump Start."
And the list goes on, including landing at the Pentagon to do MEDEVAC missions right after it was hit by a commercial airliner on 9/11.
Army Maj. Gen. Raymond Carpenter, the acting director of the Army National Guard and a frequent flyer on board the D.C. Guard's last Hueys, was able to take a final ride on the same day the Huey was flown to Ozark, Ala., where it will be refurbished and used as trainer for Air Force flight students at neighboring Ft. Rucker.
"It was a great privilege for me to be on the flight," Carpenter said. "The UH-1 has spanned my career and it is the helicopter that has supported the Army and the Army Guard for almost half a century. Truly a remarkable record for one of the most reliable pieces of equipment the Army has ever acquired."
Army Chief Warrant Officer 4 Rohn Legore, a longtime maintenance officer and pilot for the D.C. Guard, said he first worked on the Huey as a mechanic in 1979 when he was serving in Korea.
"I found out that the D.C. Guard had the Huey down here at Davison Army Airfield, so I joined," he said.
Bellamy flew the Huey on her first assignment in Korea as a UH-1 maintenance platoon leader.
"We like to say that a flight school diploma is a license to learn," she said. "Flying the UH-1 in Korea that first year taught me some of the most important things I know about flying."
Bellamy went on to become a UH-1 instructor pilot at the Army Aviation Center at Fort Rucker and later deployed to Desert Storm as a Huey and Blackhawk maintenance officer.
"I've been a pilot-in-command in other aircraft," Bellamy said, "but the right-front seat of a Huey feels like home."
Chief Warrant Officer 5 Steven Mueck, a DCNG aviation instructor pilot, had similar feelings.
"It really felt like losing an old friend," he said about watching the Huey take off for the last time. "In 30 years of flying, it never left me without a ride home - never had an accident or incident- [It] was a true pilot's aircraft."
Mueck had more than 4,000 hours in the Huey, flying in good weather and bad, the daytime and nighttime with night vision goggles.
"[It] always brought me home safe and sound," he said. "[It] was a workhorse and will be dearly missed."