A brother's Vietnam memorial

(EXCERPT) By Joe Garner, Rocky Mountain News November 8, 2003

FRUITA - Is the helicopter landing?

Or taking off?

The nose of the Huey helicopter is down, suspended in time as the
centerpiece of the new Western Slope Vietnam War Memorial. The
workhorse aircraft of that divisive war has been positioned so it
could be coming in or lifting away.

"In my mind, it's already rescued and it's taking off," said Jim
Doody, 49, who first conceived of the memorial as a tribute to his
brother, Tom Doody, killed at age 22 flying a Huey on a combat mission
in 1971.

The memorial also is a tribute to the friendship Tom Doody shared with
his Grand Junction flying buddy, Marshall Davis. Davis served in
Vietnam as a grunt on the ground only to die in a civilian helicopter
crash in 1986 at age 37.

"The memorial is uplifting to me," Jim Doody said. "It's embracing."

Still, visitors to the monument wonder about the chopper. If it could
roar free from its static display, is it arriving or leaving? As the
unpopular war recedes into history, is this a greeting or a farewell?
A beginning or an end?

Some Vietnam veterans in western Colorado see it as a sign they have
been welcomed back, finally. T...

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---------------------------
Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com