TONAWANDA — A group of area Vietnam veterans held a dedication ceremony Wednesday morning for a memorial at Veteran’s Park, new home to an AH-1 Cobra helicopter that was shot down in Vietnam.
“This Cobra is an important symbol to a lot of us,” explained local veteran Bill Paton, an artillery forward observer who received the Air Medal in Vietnam, and is part of the group that secured the helicopter for Tonawanda. “It represents that resilience, the will to take hits and keep pressing on, that really came to represent our soldiers, marines, airmen and sailors during the Vietnam War. It’s a survivor, like we are, and a reminder of our brothers who didn’t come back.”
“This is a homecoming for that helicopter, and for the troops who flew Cobras, who counted on them for air support, who fought our wars while the AH-1 ruled the skies,” said Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 77 President Mike Walker. “This helicopter is going to symbolically move from its former role as one of America’s fiercest warriors to a new one, helping heal old wounds and teach about the past.”
Under an agreement reached by the “Remembering Vietnam” Memorial Committee, on which Paton has served as a member, Bell Aerospace will lease the helicopter to local veterans for 99 years. The City of Tonawanda, meanwhile is providing the site for its display, where it, along with a brick wall, will stand as a symbolic remembrance of Vietnam-era veterans’ sacrifice.
Local organizers say the Cobra, which is not known to have ever been formally named, will now carry the name “Remembering Vietnam.”
Photo courtesy of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 77.
