MINERAL WELLS, Texas -- Former Vietnam helicopter commander Doug Hopkins didn't make the 225-mile drive from Eufaula, Okla., to Mineral Wells for just any "Huey" celebration.

This ceremony -- a "Hoist the Huey" dedication ? involved UH-1D 65-10068.

That tail number has a lot of meaning for the retired captain who served in the Rattler platoon of the 71st Aviation Company. It was in that very Bell 205 H Iroquois helicopter that he and three fellow Rattlers took enemy gunfire while ferrying troops from the 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) on Dec. 8, 1966, in the area known as Ho Bo Woods, northwest of Saigon.

That day, gunfire came from a schoolhouse. American gunships attached to the Firebirds platoon returned fire, taking out the enemy combatants, but not before Spec. 4th Class Ernest Palmieri, crew chief that day on board "068," was hit by the only two bullets to find the helicopter. Palmieri later died.

It was with some mixed emotions that Hopkins watched as that same 5,200-pound Huey helicopter was lifted into the air Aug. 16 onto a platform atop a pole -- mounted at a 45-degree angle -- for permanent display at the site of the developing National Vietnam War Museum, located just east of Mineral Wells.

"It just brings back a lot of memories, good and bad," said Hopkins. "I still think of that young man, what a nice kid he was."

Hopkins reached into his pocket and produced one of the slugs that struck and killed his crew chief. He recovered it from the helicopter after they landed, and he has kept it for the nearly 42 years since.

Now a cattle rancher, Hopkins was present at the Huey dedication because of fellow Rattler Ron Seabolt, who also attended. Seabolt, of Terrell, Texas, learned of the ceremony and the helicopter special to he and Hopkins on the Internet.

Both knew they had to be at the event.

Seabolt was aboard UH-1D 65-10068 another time when it took fire, this time in the tail.

"Can you imagine, 41 years ago I took a hit in that helicopter, and now here it is," Seabolt said.

Interestingly, Seabolt said "068" is not the only Huey flown by the Rattlers now on permanent display. He said another one is located at the airport in San Angelo, Texas, one that he said he also took a hit in. Unlike the Mineral Wells display, the Huey at San Angelo carries the colors and logo of the Rattlers.

Though Hopkins doesn't recall flying with Seabolt, Seabolt said he remembers flying with Hopkins.

"He was a damned good pilot," Seabolt said.

The two were among several hundred people -- many of them veterans of the Vietnam era -- who attended the ceremony marking another step in the development of the museum dedicated to telling the story of the Vietnam era and the military men and women who served in it. Attendees gathered to hear speeches.