Atwood Legion to dedicate helicopter gunship, veterans memorial

ATWOOD -- The dedication of an Army Cobra Helicopter Gunship & Veterans Memorial will be the highlight of a special day Saturday, May 6 at the Atwood/Rawlins County Airport, hosted by Atwood's Sam Hubbard Post 46 of the American Legion.

Activities begin at 9 a.m. with the dedication ceremony at 11 a.m. and a hamburger meal served at noon. All non-veterans will be charged a nominal fee for the meal that will be served free to all veterans in attendance. In event of inclement weather, the complete schedule of activities will be conducted in the hangar at Sunflower Aero Inc.

One of the featured speakers at the ceremony will be Mike Law, Denver, a founding member of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association, and part of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the association presenting their mobile history museum throughout the day. He'll be relating his experiences as a Cobra Gun Ship pilot in Vietnam.

The Helicopter War Museum is a public project of the association that is housed in an 18-wheel trailer. It tells the story of the Vietnam War from a helicopter pilot's perspective and is dedicated to the 2,196 helicopter pilots and 2,703 crewmen who gave their lives in support of the ground troops who served in Vietnam from 1961 to 1975. There is no admission to the museum that is a two-year "work in progress," but donations to the museum are gratefully accepted.

The museum displays memorabilia and artifacts from pilots, combat and survival maps and dozens of Vietnam-era displays and includes model helicopters and displays of aircraft in photo, video and audio format.

Law graduated from Colorado State University in Fort Collins in 1965 with a degree in mathematics and an ROTC commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

In late 1967, he earned his wings as an Army rotary pilot, and in 1968 he deployed to Vietnam as the commander of a gunship platoon with an Air Cavalry Troop.

Law completed the AH-1G (Cobra) pilot qualification training in Vietnam and logged more than 500 hours in the Cobra plus another 500 hours in the Huey helicopters with the 7/17th Cavalry in the highlands of Vietnam. He left the Army in 1970 and earned a masters degree in computer science from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

In 2000 he retired after 29 years of service with United Airline‚s Computer Division. Over the years Law helped produce the VHPA's Membership Directory and is editor of their annual "war birds" calendar

To view additional photos of the museum, plus helicopters in action in Vietnam and complete news about the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association, visit http://www .vhparmc.org.

A military-surplus Scout helicopter, owned by the Kansas Highway Patrol, and scheduled to be displayed, was used during the Vietnam War flying in tandem with the Cobra as a reconnaissance/ fire suppression team.

The KHP will also have their fixed-wing aircraft on display.