#TBT: Huey helicopter, F-9 Cougar jet were Corpus Christi bayfront landmarks for years
Corpus Christi has always taken pride in its military connections, and longtime residents will remember the evidence of those with the display of two aircraft that once were featured on the downtown bayfront.
Cougar jet on T-head
The first was a 1950s F-9 Cougar jet on the Lawrence Street T-head. Naval Air Station Corpus Christi donated the jet in 1964. The jet, which was 47 feet long and weighed 5,000 pounds, was installed on concrete pillars and positioned to look as if it was taking off.
The installation was a joint effort between the City of Corpus Christi Parks and Recreation Department and the Navy. They worked together for more than a year to secure the aircraft from the Department of the Navy. A crew worked on the aircraft for 3 weeks stripping and painting the jet for display. It was maintained jointly by the two groups.
More: #TBT: NAS-Chase Field trained pilots for nearly 50 years
A dedication ceremony was held July 12, 1964, presided over by Mayor James Barnard and Navy officials. The jet was initially painted blue with bold accents, but in 1969 the Navy repainted the landmark white and orange to match the other planes at the Naval Air Station’s training squads. The city also pumped concrete into the plane’s interior in 1965. Vandals kept damaging the tail of the plane, which allowed children to climb inside to play.
The jet remained on the T-head for nearly 30 years, but in 1992 the Navy informed the city it would need to come down. Federal laws on safety and military budget cutbacks meant the Naval Air Station no longer had the funds to maintain the installation. The concrete pilings along with the jet itself were corroding from the constant exposure to salt air. City officials were understandably saddened to lose the icon, but consoled themselves with the knowledge that the USS Lexington was well on its way to become a symbol of Navy pride on the city’s bayfront the same year.
Helicopter in McCaughan Park
In early 1970, the Army got in on the action, when the Richard H. Bitter Chapter of the Army Aviation Association of America donated a UH1 helicopter, colloquially known as a Huey, to the city for display on a pedestal in McCaughan Park on the bayfront. The local Army repair facility, known as Corpus Christi Army Depot now but called Army Aeronautical Depot Maintenance Center then, dedicated the new monument to the city in a ceremony presided by U.S. Rep. John Young, Mayor Jack Blackmon, and ARADMAC’s commander Col. Luther Jones on Feb. 7.
The pedestal included a plaque reading, “A memorial to the members of the Unites States Armed Forces who served with honor in Southeast Asia. Presented to the City of Corpus Christi by the Richard H. Bitter Chapter Army Aviation Association of America on 7 February 1970.”
More: #TBT: Sherrill Park named for Corpus Christi's first World War II casualty
The helicopter was knocked off its pedestal just a few months later when Hurricane Celia made landfall in Corpus Christi on Aug. 3, 1970. In December, volunteers from ARADMAC had repaired and placed the Huey back on its base.
The helicopter remained for many years, disappearing occasionally for painting and repairs – like when vandals launched beer bottles at the memorial, breaking the windows in 1984 – and was even completely replaced with “new” helicopters three times. And “new” wasn’t new of course, but rather helicopters that had outlived their usefulness and been declared excess by the Army.
By the time the helicopter was replaced in 1997, CCAD didn’t repair Hueys anymore, so the corroded model was sent to the scrapyard. In 2004, the helicopter was removed for repairs and while slated to return, no other mentions of the helicopter reinstallation appear in the archives after that.
Allison Ehrlich writes about things to do in South Texas and has a weekly Throwback Thursday column on local history.
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Helicopter, F-9 jet were Corpus Christi bayfront landmarks for years
