Vietnam pilot to speak this Memorial Day

BANGOR – The helicopter pilot who flew the Huey 65-9915, now mounted outside Cole Land Transportation Museum, will return to the museum Memorial Day and the next day to speak on his war experiences.

Tom Stryker of New Jersey, who made a “hard landing” in the aircraft on Jan. 20, 1970, near An Loc, Vietnam, pulled back so hard on the stick that it flexed the main rotor down in the back, hitting the rear of the helicopter and severing the tail-rotor drive shaft.

More than 1,000 people attended last year’s Memorial Day dedication of the Maine Vietnam Memorial at the museum at 405 Perry Road. This year’s program will begin at 1 p.m., with Hampden Academy band parents selling food 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Memorial Day will still be a time to honor the World War II veterans. The museum is recruiting “World War Two-ers,” as founder Galen Cole calls them, to march or ride in the 10:30 a.m. parade that will proceed from Exchange Street to State Street and up Main Street to Davenport Park. It will be led by Gov. John E. Baldacci and Honorary Marshal Cole.

First Student bus will transport World War II veterans who need to ride the half-mile route. In addition, there will be buses to carry parade participants from Davenport Park back to their vehicles.

Stryker will be the keynote speaker for the Memorial Day commemoration at 1 p.m. at the museum. On Tuesday, May 31, he will speak to area students, Scouts, parents and teachers at 4 p.m. on the museum lawn.

On Memorial Day itself, other Vietnam veterans will take part in the commemoration at the museum, as well – City Councilor John Cashwell, also a combat pilot in Vietnam, will deliver a proclamation from the city of Bangor; and Jim Sawyer, a teacher at Tremont School and former gunner on a Huey in Vietnam.

Wreaths will be laid at three monuments on the grounds: at the World War II Memorial by Raymond Perkins, WWII veteran and participant in the student interview program; at the Purple Heart Memorial by Gary Lawyerson, president, Maine Veterans Coordinating Committee; at the Vietnam Memorial by Wayne Cartier, vice president of Vietnam Veterans of America for Maine.

The event will include a USO-type show with the Hampden Academy Jazz Ensemble.

Red, white and blue reflective stickers will be applied to World War II walking sticks, and those attending the commemoration will be admitted free to the museum after the program.

Also participating in activities will be the Maine National Guard Honor Guard, master of ceremonies Don Colson and Maj. Richard Dickinson, chaplain of the Maine Air National Guard.

Also on Memorial Day, a Veterans Helping Veterans fund-raiser will be held after the parade at Davenport Park on Main Street.

Veterans statewide have joined with Bangor area merchants, businesses and individuals to host the city’s first “SOS Breakfast,” with creamed beef on toast.

The breakfast is by donation, and is a gesture of support for Sgt. Harold Gray of Penobscot, a member of the Maine Army National Guard who was injured in Iraq and is hospitalized at Walter Reed Military Hospital in Washington.

For information on Memorial Day activities at Cole Land Transportation Museum, call 990-3600. To help with the breakfast supporting Sgt. Harold Gray or to make a donation, call Ken Buckley at 942-6501 or Phil Eckert, 825-3772, or write Lawrence Stanchfield, 586 Deerfield Drive, Hermon 04401.