Dedication of Huey Helicopter to the Memory of Specialist Kenneth Plavcan

On Monday, June 22, at 7 p.m. the Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum will host a free ceremony to dedicate the museum’s Huey helicopter 66-15005 to the memory of Army Specialist Four Kenneth Plavcan, who was killed in action while onboard the aircraft on Oct. 1, 1968 in the Vietnam War.  Plavcan was 21 years old.

The event will be held near the helicopter, which is now located in the Vietnam Experience exhibit landside of the Charleston harbor. The event is free and open to the public.  Museum staff and volunteers recently discovered that Kenneth Plavcan paid the ultimate sacrifice while serving on the exact helicopter that is now part of our museum.   Members of Plavcan's family will attend the ceremony and watch as the Huey is officially dedicated in memory of their loved one.

After his death, Plavcan was awarded the Army’s Distinguished Flying Cross, an Air Medal (first through seventeenth Oak Leaf Cluster), and a Commendation Medal with “V” Device for his heroic actions that saved the lives of his helicopter crew and the ground troops he was asked to protect during his final combat assault mission.

Plavcan was raised in Parma, Ohio. He enlisted in the Army in January 1966 and was sent to Vietnam in May 1967. Just days before he was killed, Plavcan had volunteered to serve an additional six months in the war.