Aircraft that carried POWs has new home

The C-141 aircraft that transported the first 78 Vietnam War POWs to freedom was moved to its new home at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force Wednesday morning.

The aircraft, which is better know as the “Hanoi Taxi,” had been kept outdoors at the museum for more than a decade.

It took crews more than an hour to carefully move the aircraft into the fourth hangar at the National Air Force Museum. The hangar, which is still under construction, is expected to open in June 2016.

One of the first POWs to board the aircraft is now retired Air Force Lt. Col. Paul Kari of West Liberty. He watched the moving of the aircraft and was able to climb aboard once in the hangar.