10/13/2026
Well… there are A LOT more of you here than there used to be. ❤️🚁🇺🇸
Over the past few months, this little page has absolutely EXPLODED. Thousands upon thousands of new people have found YL-37, shared our videos, told their own stories in the comments, recognized names and aircraft, and helped us reach people we never could have reached on our own.
So for everyone who is new here, we thought it was time to properly introduce you to YL-37 — The Flying Memorial.
YL-37 is a Sikorsky UH-34D, Bureau Number 148783, that served with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 362 — the “Ugly Angels” — during the Vietnam War.
She isn’t a replica.
She isn’t a helicopter painted to LOOK like one that served in Vietnam.
She was there.
Today, she still carries the scars of that service — including 54 documented bullet holes.
And somehow, more than six decades later, she still flies.
But keeping an old warbird in the air just because it’s cool isn’t our mission.
The people are.
YL-37 carries a plaque honoring 33 Ugly Angels who never came home. Every time those blades turn, every time she lands at a school, an airshow, a veterans event or a small-town gathering, those names go with her.
Our goal is to take history OUT of museums and textbooks and put it right in front of people.
We want a Vietnam veteran to hear the unmistakable sound of a UH-34 again.
We want a child to climb up beside her and ask, “What did this helicopter do?”
We want families to tell stories about fathers, grandfathers, brothers and friends who served.
And we want younger generations to understand that the names on memorials belonged to real people with families, dreams, jokes, friends and lives that mattered.
For our family, there’s another layer to this story that is sometimes hard to even wrap our heads around.
YL-37 was flown on 11 missions in Vietnam by Philip Larry Turner.
Today, Larry's son, Nick Turner, is YL-37’s pilot.
And when Nick climbs into that cockpit, he sits in the very same pilot seat his dad sat in while flying this aircraft in Vietnam.
Beside him in the co-pilot’s seat is his brother, Jim.
Two sons now flying the same helicopter their father flew in a war more than 60 years ago.
And the connection doesn’t stop there.
Nick’s son, Tyler, is now learning the aircraft as Crew Chief Under Instruction, and Larry’s great-grandchildren have flown aboard her too.
Four generations of one family connected to one extraordinary aircraft.
There are moments when we look inside that cockpit and really think about what we’re seeing — Nick in his dad’s seat, Jim beside him, Tyler working around the aircraft, and the next generation growing up knowing YL-37 not as something they saw in an old photograph, but as something they’ve touched, climbed into and flown aboard.
The same helicopter that carried their father and grandfather through Vietnam is still carrying his family through the skies today.
That’s living history.
And that’s exactly what we want YL-37 to be for everyone.
We’re developing opportunities to bring her to more schools and communities, expanding the educational side of the Flying Memorial, connecting veterans and families, researching and sharing the stories of the 33, and doing everything we can to make sure those stories don’t disappear as the generations who lived them grow older.
Some of you found us because of a veteran in one of our videos.
Some because you love aviation.
Some because you served.
Some because your dad or grandpa flew in one of these.
And some of you probably stopped scrolling because you saw a big old helicopter and thought, “What the heck is THAT?” 😂
However you got here — welcome.
Read the comments. Ask questions. Tell us who you served with. Tell us about your veteran. Share the memories our videos bring back. And please keep sharing these stories.
Because every follow, comment and share puts this history in front of someone who may never have known it otherwise.
We may be the caretakers of YL-37.
But this story belongs to all of them.
The ones who flew.
The ones who crewed.
The ones who waited at home.
The ones who came back.
And especially the 33 who didn’t.
That’s why we fly. 🇺🇸
YL-37 | The Flying Memorial
Keeping their stories in the air.
