The loud banging sounded for all the world like .51-caliber machine gun fire hitting the Huey helicopter, so Vietnam War pilot Tom Stryker did what he was trained to do – try to evade the enemy.

But the problem wasn’t gunfire, but an engine that was coming apart.

“If the engine got hot enough, it would explode, possibly starting a fire or tearing the aircraft apart,” Stryker wrote in an account of the Jan. 20, 1970, incident. “We shut the engine down and auto-rotated toward the ground, broadcasting a distress message in the blind, giving our position and possible landing area.”

Near An Loc, the helicopter made a “hard landing,” Stryker wrote, “and in the dust cloud it seemed we were flipping over from tail to head. I pulled back hard on the stick, flexing the main rotor down in the back so far it hit the tail of the aircraft – severing the tail-rotor drive shaft.”

That helicopter, the restored Huey 65-9915, is mounted outside Cole Land Transportation Museum in Bangor. And Stryker, the retired warrant officer from New Jersey who piloted it, will return to the museum Memorial Day and the next day to speak about his war experiences.

Memorial Day will still be a time to honor others, including 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. Monday, May 30, parade that will proceed from Exchange Street to State Street and up Main Street to Davenport Park.

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.

Cole won’t be heading the World War II contingent this year – he’s been asked to be honorary marshal and lead the parade with Gov. John Baldacci.

Cole also hopes that all veterans and members of the community will attend the museum’s annual commemoration at 1 p.m. Monday, May 30, at 405 Perry Road.

Those honored will include the Vietnam veterans – like Stryker – who last year swelled the crowd to 1,000 when the Maine Vietnam Memorial was dedicated at the museum.

Stryker will be the keynote speaker for Memorial Day afternoon, and on Tuesday, May 31, will speak to local 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, delivering 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 a National Guard honor guard, master of ceremonies Don Colson and Maj. Richard Dickinson, chaplain of the Maine Air National Guard.

Hampden Academy band parents will sell hot dogs, hamburgers, soda and brownies from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the museum grounds.

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 Army Medical Center 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.