Vietnam Helicopter Pilot Memorial Map

About the Vietnam Helicopter Pilot Memorial Map

The Vietnam Helicopter Pilot Memorial Map plots the U.S. helicopter losses of the Vietnam War (1960–1975) — remembering the pilots, crew, and passengers aboard, incident by incident.

The data

Records are drawn from the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association (VHPA) loss database and enriched with memorial details from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund's Wall of Faces. Each incident links back to its source records.

How it started

Nearly 12,000 helicopters were used during the Vietnam Conflict. They accumulated over 10,000,000 flight hours and 5,086 were destroyed. Of the 1,100 OH-6A Light Observation Scout helicopters in service 80% were destroyed. Of the 950 AH-1G Cobras utilized, 30% were destroyed. The 7,013 Hueys flew over 7,500,000 hours in service with 47% being lost. 40,000 Helicopter Pilots served in the Vietnam conflict and over 2,100 were killed, nearly twice the casualty rate of the average Vietnam participant.

In 2010, Ron Bower, of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilot’s Association (VHPA) suggested that the society collect information for a “Memory Map” to collect “war stories” and artifacts from members. At that time, the association had neither the storage space nor the personnel to organize such a project so the "Memory Map" died. In 2023 I started the Memorial Map to honor all pilots and crew killed in Southeast Asia.

The people behind it

The data base for this map is the result of many unknown volunteers who worked with Gary Roush for over 50 years filing Freedom of Information Acts to obtain incident reports. Without the effort of these selfless people, this unique database would not exist.

Ken McElroy spent 19 months as a Vietnam helicopter pilot with the 175th "Outlaws" and the 214 CAB "Cougars" at Vinh Long in 1969-1970. I used my GI bill to get a mechanical engineering degree and as such I have worked for 7 companies in such diverse industries as helicopters, outboards, oil field equipment, computer chip manufacturing, and human replacement joints.

Austin McElroy is the son of Ken McElroy who volunteered his AI expertise so his father would quite bugging him.

Future goals

In the past year, I have become aware that increasing numbers of people using the map are not former military but historians or younger family members trying to learn more about the Vietnam Conflict. While the current “Memory Map” helps veterans remember their tour(s) of duty, historians and family members have trouble navigating this map. With the help of artificial intelligence, I will be replacing the “Memory Map” with a more easily searchable map.

Add where the project is headed.

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