A replica Huey helicopter will help give local Vietnam veterans a long overdue welcome home half a century after their service in the war.

The Huey was always a welcome sight for troops in the jungles of Vietnam.

This Veterans Day, it will be a welcome home sight for Vietnam veterans being recognized half a century after their service in the war.

The town will celebrate the service of approximately 180 Vietnam veterans on Veterans Day this year with special ceremonies at Memorial Hall. An award-winning replica of a Huey will greet them on the way into the celebration.

Local veteran Harry Titus built the helicopter five years ago after he made a trip back to Vietnam. The helicopter is an exact replica of the Hueys used to take supplies to troops in the field and carry the wounded to hospitals.

“It’s the icon. That’s the whole thing. You look at it and, as a Vietnam vet, that says it all,” Titus, who served as a rifleman in the Army in Vietnam, said.

Owner of Signarama Kingston, Titus built the helicopter at his shop with the help of fellow veterans Ken Medeiros, Ron Flockton, Greg Hayward, Bob Davidson and the late Jack Flagg in 2011. The helicopter was featured in that year’s Thanksgiving parade.

It came out of mothballs this summer after Plymouth decided to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the war by giving veterans who served in Vietnam the welcome home ceremony they never received.

The Huey has since been pressed back into service in Fourth of July parades in Plymouth and Duxbury to raise awareness for the Veterans Day celebration. The float, accompanied by a contingent of uniformed veterans, won first place honors in both parades.

Titus and several veterans more recently took the float to South Boston for ceremonies honoring three Medal of Honor recipients.

The Huey is named God’s Lunatics, in part, for the great respect troops on the ground held for the men who flew the helicopters into combat zones.

“When you saw these guys fly in with these things, you just thought they had to be lunatics, because who else would do that, but, man, you were glad to see them,” Titus said. “They were beyond heroes.”

Plymouth decided to celebrate Vietnam veterans in partnership with a national campaign commemorating the 50th anniversary of the war.

Manomet veteran Brian Sullivan, who served as a lieutenant with the military police in Vietnam, discovered the government commemorative program while researching veterans services earlier this year. Now a retired lieutenant colonel, Sullivan will be guest speaker at this year’s Veterans Day observances.

The 2008 National Defense Authorization Act authorized the Secretary of Defense to coordinate the 50th anniversary program, which by presidential proclamation extends from Memorial Day 2012 through Veterans Day 2025.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, 9 million Americans served in the armed forces during the war. In an effort to reach the 7 million still alive, the government is partnering with local veterans groups and communities to organize events and activities to thank the war’s veterans.

Roxanne Whitbeck, Plymouth's veterans agent, applied for partnership on behalf of the town to coordinate the town’s Veterans Day events this year.

Vietnam veterans will be recognized with special “Welcome Home” challenge coins. The Vietnam veterans will also receive commemorative pins issued by the government as part of the 50th anniversary observances.

Whitbeck said approximately 180 local Vietnam veterans will be honored during the Veterans Day ceremonies. The coins will serve as tickets to get veterans into a special luncheon immediately following the Veterans Day observances in the Blue Room of Memorial Hall. “The Other Side of the Wall,” a collection of Vietnam memorabilia, will be on display during the luncheon.

Plymouth’s Veterans Day ceremonies will begin this year at noon on Nov. 11.

Not only Vietnam War veterans will be honored. The program includes a welcome home for a World War II veteran whose remains were only recently identified and returned home.

Marine Pfc. James Mansfield died Nov. 20, 1943, during the Battle of Tarawa. He was buried locally after his remains were returned home in August.