WATCH: Museum at Mount Pleasant features helicopter shot down 3 times in Vietnam

The Mid America Flight Museum at the Mount Pleasant Regional Airport has over 40 vintage aircraft that are flight-capable, and at least that many stories. KLTV brings us the tale of their Vietnam-era helicopter that still flies, even though it had been shot down during battle.

Mid America Flight Museum Director of Operations Kelly Mahon said they had been looking for a Bell UH-1 H Huey for a couple of years.

“It was really the workhorse of Vietnam. So it would be executive transport, medevac, cargo, gunship; it did it all,” Mahon said.

And this particular chopper returned gunfire.

“This one has two thousand hours in country,” Mahon said.

Mahon points out that a chopper did not belong to the pilot. It belonged to an assigned crew chief.

“His name is David Riley, and he’s flown in the helicopter a number of times, but that’s been fifty years now,” Mahon said.