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<\/p>\nCORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 A junk removal company working at a Flour Bluff demolition site discovered a piece of military history that could have ended up in a landfill.<\/p>\n
Bulletproof Dumpster Rentals was clearing debris when worker Matt Garza came across a portion of a Navy helicopter blade. Instead of discarding it or selling it, Garza donated it to the USS Lexington Museum.<\/p>\n
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Matt Garza<\/p>\n
“He had that great intuition to reach out to us and I’m glad he did,” USS Lexington Executive Director Steve Banta said.<\/p>\n
Banta said the blade’s serial numbers confirmed its origin.<\/p>\n
“These serial numbers actually designated from an H-34, which is a Sikorsky model,” Banta said.<\/p>\n
The H-34 was a helicopter used for rescues during pilot training operations.<\/p>\n
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COURTESY: USS LEXINGTON MUSEUM<\/p>\n
H-34 helicopter hovers over the USS Lexington<\/p>\n
“So when the Lexington was out in the Gulf doing training operations all the pilots around here would go out and practice landing on the ship. There was always a helicopter airborne in case of a mishap so they could do search and rescue,” Banta said.<\/p>\n
The blade likely comes from one of the helicopters that supported the Lexington roughly 60 years ago.<\/p>\n
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Steve Banta explains the rare Navy helicopter blade found at demolition site<\/p>\n
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“In the 60’s the H-34 was the helicopter that flew out of Pensacola and supported the Lexington in the Gulf,” Banta said.<\/p>\n
The blade has been cut down to about a quarter of its original size \u2014 and Banta believes that was intentional.<\/p>\n
Junk removal worker donates Navy helicopter blade to USS Lexington<\/p>\n
“You’d have to have a pretty big room for a full blade. Somebody, I think, had this cut so they could display it on a bulkhead, on a wall somewhere,” Banta said.<\/p>\n
Banta believes the blade once belonged to a veteran stationed at the nearby naval base who kept it as memorabilia.<\/p>\n
“And so this is likely connected to the Navy version of the helicopter because of the Navy base that was here,” Banta said.<\/p>\n
Most donations to the museum come from veterans and their families \u2014 not demolition sites \u2014 making this discovery especially unusual.<\/p>\n
“But for somebody to just stumble upon something that could’ve gotten thrown away,” Banta said.<\/p>\n
Banta said he is grateful Garza recognized what he had found.<\/p>\n
“Anybody else might not have recognized what it was and just scrapped it,” Banta said.<\/p>\n
The blade will be saved for a future helicopter exhibit at the museum. Banta said the museum continues to grow its collection and add new exhibits.<\/p>\n
“You know, most people say ‘Oh yeah I went there 20 years ago in 5th grade when I had a field trip.’ Let me tell you it’s changed there’s new stuff. We have new exhibits,” Banta said.<\/p>\n
For more information on how you can donate or support the USS Lexington Museum, you can visit their website<\/a>. <\/p>\n For the latest local news updates, click here<\/a>, or download the KRIS 6 News App.<\/a><\/p>\n