Aero-TV: VHPAF Reaches Out To Vietnam Vets Who Flew | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-06.23.25

Airborne-NextGen-06.24.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.25.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-06.26.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.27.25

Mon, Jun 16, 2025

Aero-TV: VHPAF Reaches Out To Vietnam Vets Who Flew

Tom Tomlinson Talks About Helicopters, Pilots, And Aircrews

At Fun ‘N Fun 2025, ANN’s Rex Alexander spoke with Tom Tomlinson flew the EurUH-1 Iroquois, more popularly known as the Huey, in Vietnam, but also flew the Hughes OH-6 Cayuse trainer and the Bell OH-58 Kiowa aircraft.

Tomlinson is a volunteer with the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association of Florida. There is no centralized state headquarters for the Association, and the chapters are spread out depending on where the members live. The original group started the organization in Tampa, and there are groups in Pensacola, Jacksonville, Miami.

Statewide there are about 293 members on the roster, most of whom are life members. Pilots and crew members like door gunners and crew chiefs are part of the Association.

The general mission of the Association is to raise awareness of their experiences. They are invited to various events and veterans functions, and the Moving Wall. The Moving Wall is a portable half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. that tours the U.S. to honor the more than 58,000 service members killed or remained missing during the Vietnam War.

At the events they attend, the Association sets up its display and simply talks with Vietnam vets that come through. Many times the helicopter that’s part of the display brings back memories.

Tom said that often, the vets will come up with their wives and chat with them and say “I was a crew chief” or “I was a door gunner” and wander off. Then they’ll come back and engage again, asking questions like “What outfit were you with?” That question often spurs recognition of someone else nearby and then they start chatting and end up talking for an hour.

Many times, the wife will later say “He’s never talked about any of that, and you guys got it out of him” so it’s very gratifying to whoever is there from the Association.

Information about the Association can be found at the website www.vhpaf.org, including how to join, photos of the events they attend, and their mission statement.

Aero-TV is a production of the Internationally syndicated Aero-News Network. Seen worldwide by hundreds of thousands of aviators and aviation adherents, ANN's Aero-TV has produced well over 5000 aviation and feature programs, including over 2500 episodes of our daily aviation news program, AIRBORNE UNLIMITED, currently hosted by Holland Lee. Now in its third decade of operation, parent company Aero-News Network, has the most aggressive and intensive editorial profile of any aviation news organization and has published well over a half-million news and feature stories since its inception -- having pioneered the online 24/7 aviation new-media model that so many have emulated.

©2025 Aero-News Network, Inc., ALL Rights Reserved

FMI: www.vhpaf.orgwww.youtube.com/aerotvnetwork

 


Advertisement

More News

TikToker Arrested After Landing His C182 in Antarctica

19-Year-Old Pilot Was Attempting to Fly Solo to All Seven Continents On his journey to become the first pilot to land solo on all seven continents, 19-year-old Ethan Guo has hit a >[...]

Classic Aero-TV: Versatile AND Practical - The All-Seeing Aeroprakt A-22 LSA

From 2017 (YouTube Edition): A Quality LSA For Well Under $100k… Aeroprakt unveiled its new LSA at the Deland Sport Aviation Showcase in November. Dennis Long, U.S. Importer>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (06.27.25): Hazardous Weather Information

Hazardous Weather Information Summary of significant meteorological information (SIGMET/WS), convective significant meteorological information (convective SIGMET/WST), urgent pilot>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (06.27.25)

Aero Linx: Historic Aircraft Association (HAA) The Historic Aircraft Association (HAA) was founded in 1979 with the aim of furthering the safe flying of historic aircraft in the UK>[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (06.27.25)

"We would like to remember Liam not just for the way he left this world, but for how he lived in it... Liam was fearless, not necessarily because he wasn't afraid but because he re>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC