Vernal Cobra

 

A Cobra gunship sits proudly in downtown Vernal, Utah.  It is an AH-1F model but closely resemble the original AH-1G that went operational in October 1967 in Vietnam.  We last visited Vernal in May 2003 during the early stages of one of our epic, multi-state USFS NVUM Secret Shopper trips.  I was awestruck by this helicopter.  When we finally decided on our South Route 2023, I became excited to see it again.  It will definitely be a highlight of our visit to Vernal this October.

As chance would have it, the AH-1G Huey is in the news as a heroic Cobra pilot received the Medal of Honor this week for a daring night rescue of four soldiers on June 18, 1968. Lt. Larry Taylor pulled off something nobody had ever thought of at that time.

The Cobra was a gunship.  It wasn't designed to carry any people other than the pilot and gunner.
But when crunch time came, Taylor winged it, so to speak, and simply snatched the recon team up in the middle of the night.  They hung on to the skids and rocket pods and Taylor flew them to survival and safety.
Larry Taylor started out flying the workhorse Huey helicopter and was one of the first pilots to fly the new AH-1G gunship.  In total he flew over 2,000 combat missions and received many military honors.
The story of the AH-1 creation is a remarkable chapter in military aviation history.  About 80% of its parts were already inventories for the Huey.  The Cobra was quite literally built on the fly by a Bell employee and its creation circumvented the entire, cumbersome military contracting process.
There was precious little room on the Cobra to carry extraneous people but Lt. Larry Taylor made it work.
The Cobra would go on to be heavily modified and improved over the years of its service.  The Cobra at Vernal isn't precisely the same model that Taylor flew but it's close enough.  We are excited to be able to visit the Vernal Cobra and honor the service of all who built, flew and maintained this machine...as well as those the gunship saved.

Here are a bunch of links about both Taylor's Medal of Honor and the helicopter itself.

https://www.mohhc.org/larrytaylor/

https://youtu.be/FiK28_4yCCs?feature=shared

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/09/01/vietnam-veteran-be-awarded-medal-of-honor-heroic-helicopter-rescue-after-55-years.html

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/06/1197819795/a-vietnam-veteran-helicopter-pilot-receives-the-medal-of-honor-for-a-daring-resc

https://www.historynet.com/ah-1-huey-cobra-gunship-snake

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_AH-1_Cobra#Specifications_(AH-1G_HueyCobra)

Interestingly, there are a LOT of Cobras on public display but hardly any in The West,  As nearly as we can tell from this list, the Vernal Cobra is the only one of its kind on display in the Intermountain West.

https://www.warbirdsandairshows.com/armydisplayhelicopters.htm

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