Hello, Midway Family! [6] The Frequent Wind plan set out four possible evacuation options:[6], With Option 4, the helicopter evacuation would be expected to be similar to Operation Eagle Pull, the American evacuation by air of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on 12 April 1975. We forgot them. By 22 April, 20 C-141 and 20 C-130s flights a day were flying evacuees out of Tan Son Nhut to Clark Air Base,[6]:60 some 1,000 miles away in the Philippines. When the evacuation is ordered, the code will be read out on Armed Forces Radio. [6]:8587, In preparation for the evacuation, the American Embassy had distributed a 15-page booklet called SAFE, short for "Standard Instruction and Advice to Civilians in an Emergency." Added names of the cities. [8], On 1 April an evacuation control center manned by U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force (USAF) and U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) personnel began operating at the Defense Attach Office (DAO) compound on 12-hour shifts, increasing to 24-hour shifts the next day. [20]:30, At 14:06 two UH-1E Huey helicopters carrying General Carey and Colonel Alfred M. Gray Jr. (commander of Regimental Landing Team 4 (RLT4)) landed at the DAO Compound. The destroyer escort, accompanying the carrier USS Hancock (CVA-19), which had offloaded her combat wing in Pearl Harbor in exchange for the 25 helicopters of Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 463, arrived in the Gulf of Thailand on 11 April to join in the evacuation of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. They wanted me to take pets from the kids and throw the animals over the side. He instructed his executive officer to Tell the powers that be that the action is done, and then dont do a goddamn thing! Had he followed that order, I would have had a riot on my hands.. In addition, the Vietnamese relatives of American citizens and senior Government of Vietnam officials and their dependents (about 600,000 people) were also identified as potential evacuees, along with Vietnamese formerly employed by the U.S. and their dependents. [10] At that time Major Kean estimated that there were still some 850 non-American evacuees and 225 Americans (including the Marines), and Ambassador Martin told Major Kean to do the best he could. [6]:121, Midway deck crew surround Major Buang and his family, At the same time as the aerial evacuation, tens of thousands of South Vietnamese fled towards TF-76 aboard junks, sampans, and small craft. Operation Frequent Wind The cause of the crash was never determined. you will have to do a lot of research as I cannot file the ships logs there from between 70 and 79 for some reason. [6] American commercial and contract carriers continued to fly out of Tan Son Nhut, but with decreasing frequency. [10]:192[20]:22 This move created fuel problems for Air America as they no longer had access to the fuel supplies in their compound and at least initially they were refused fuel by the ships of TF76. The tin can sailors of the destroyer escort USS Kirk (DE-1087) are quick to point out that their primary missionthe bottom line of antisubmarine warfarehad been to hunt and kill. Sporadic gunfire from around the embassy passed over the rooftop. His helicopter turned and hit the side of Blue Ridge before hitting the sea. As it hovered over her stern, dozens of passengers jumped into the waiting arms of bluejackets. [10]:191192, The HMH-462 CH-53s loaded with evacuees and left the compound, they unloaded the first evacuees delivered by Operation Frequent Wind at 15:40. [21]:78, At 04:58 Ambassador Martin boarded a USMC CH-46 Sea Knight, call-sign Lady Ace 09 of HMM-165 and was flown to USS Blue Ridge. President Ford later called it "a sad and tragic period in America's history" but argued that "you couldn't help but be very proud of those pilots and others who were conducting the evacuation". The weather conditions deteriorated as the operation continued. Marine Corps Command and Staff College. Hugh van Es believed that Miss Saigon misappropriated his photo and considered legal action against the show, but decided against it. A C-130 Airborne Command and Control controlled all US air operations over land. Sea Stories - Operation Frequent Wind Then the F-4D was cleared to destroy the 57 mm battery and did so with two CBU-71 and two CBU-58 Cluster bombs, neutralizing the site, northeast of Saigon, without damage to either aircraft. The buses would follow one of four planned evacuation routes from downtown Saigon to the DAO Compound, each route named after a Western Trail: Santa Fe, Oregon, Texas, etc. RVNAF pilot jumps from his Huey after dropping evacuees on USS Midway, One of the more notable events occurred on Midway when the pilot of an RVNAF Cessna O-1 dropped a note on the deck of the carrier. Original file (SVG file, nominally 744 850 pixels, file size: 105 KB). The Vietnam War by this time was no longer an American conflict, and the South Vietnamese were in dire straits. In Operation Frequent Wind a total of 1,373 Americans and 5,595 Vietnamese and third-country nationals were evacuated by helicopter. Subscribe now and never hit a limit. As the U.S. fleet steamed away from Vietnam, the Kirk was tagged with a mysterious order to return. On 23 April President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines announced that no more than 2,500 Vietnamese evacuees would be allowed in the Philippines at any one time, further increasing the strain on MAC which now had to move evacuees out of Saigon and move some 5,000 evacuees from Clark Air Base on to Guam, Wake Island and Yokota Air Base. Operation Frequent Wind The four crew members estimated they received more than 500 rounds of 23-mm, 37-mm, and 57-mm fire in the space of one minute. Called Operation Frequent Wind, the plan involved the use of U. S. Air Force helicopters to ferry the evacuees from landing zones around Saigon to ships of the Seventh Fleet waiting off shore, including the USS Midway [6]:35, On 7 April Air America pilot Nikki A. Fillipi, with U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Robert Twigger, assigned to the DAO as the U.S. Navy liaison officer, surveyed 37 buildings in Saigon as possible landing zones (LZ), selecting 13 of them as fit for use. [38] Hubert van Es' photo is frequently used in political cartoons commenting on US foreign policy. [4], Although American officials at the highest levels of the intelligence community (e.g., CIA Director William Colby) were certain that the South Vietnamese government would collapse, everyone in the U.S. government underestimated the speed of the North Vietnamese advance during the 1975 Spring Offensive and how quickly the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) would collapse. The fixed-wing evacuation was terminated and Operation Frequent Wind began. Evacuation plans already existed as a standard procedure for American embassies. [6] At 08:30 on 29 April, with the shelling of Tan Son Nhut Airport subsiding, Air America began ferrying its helicopter and fixed-wing pilots from their homes in Saigon to the Air America compound at Tan Son Nhut, across the road from the DAO Compound. Operation Frequent Wind was the final phase in the evacuation of American civilians and "at-risk" Vietnamese from Saigon, South Vietnam, before the takeover of the city by the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) in the Fall of Saigon. [6], The evacuation proceeded without interference from the PAVN. One, a Boeing CH-47 Chinook, was too large to land on the destroyer escort. [6] There were about 17,000 at-risk Vietnamese on embassy rolls, which, using an average of seven dependents per family, meant that the number requiring evacuation was 119,000. [6]:22 Also on 1 April, Plan Alamo was implemented to defend the DAO compound and its annex so it could serve as a holding area for 1,500 evacuees for five days. [6]:35, By late April, Air America helicopters were flying several daily shuttles from TF76 to the DAO Compound to enable the 9th MAB to conduct evacuation preparations at the DAO without exceeding the Paris Peace Accords' limit of 50 U.S. military personnel in South Vietnam. [10] At 04:30 with the 19 lift limit already exceeded, Major Kean went to the rooftop LZ and spoke over a helicopter radio with General Carey who advised that President Ford had ordered that the airlift be limited to US personnel. 1975 military operation by the United States to evacuate Saigon, South Vietnam, International Commission of Control and Supervision, crash-landing while attempting to return to Tan Son Nhut, 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron, Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act, US Army Field Manual 90-29: Embassy Emergency Action Plan, "Chapter 5: The Final Curtain, 1973 1975", "Air America: Played a Crucial Part of the Emergency Helicopter Evacuation of Saigon p.1", "Operation Frequent Wind: April 29-30, 1975", "Thomas Polgar, CIA official during the fall of Saigon, dies", "Air America in South Vietnam III: The Collapse", "Major James H, Kean SSN/0802 USMC, After Action Report 17 April-7 May 1975 p. 3", "Last U.S. Marines to leave Saigon describe chaos of Vietnam War's end", "Former South Korean diplomat reconciles with his Vietnamese captors", "Gerald R. Ford's Remarks at the Opening of the Ford Museum's Saigon Staircase Exhibit, Grand Rapids Michigan", "Lady Ace 09 unveiled at aviation museum", "Helicopter evacuating crowd from rooftop", "Photographer who took famous Vietnam War image dies", The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family. As the imminent collapse of Saigon became evident, the U.S. Navy assembled Task Force 76 off the coast near Vng Tu to support a helicopter evacuation and provide air support if required. Harnage leaned out of the Huey and helped approximately 15 evacuees board the Huey from the narrow helipad. He has worked as lead editor of scholarly publications for the Naval History and Heritage Command, senior editor ofProceedingsandNaval Historymagazines, and writer-editor for the U.S. Marine Corps History Division. Major Kean saw Ambassador Martin to request that he contact the Oval Office to ensure that the airlift continued. It's a laundry ship". Shipmates would fight for that ship. Some, however, including the Kirk, still serve in foreign navies. And if we dont get them or any part of them, theyre all probably going to be killed.. Taken with other categories of Vietnamese, the number quickly passed 200,000. Once the deck was clear Major Buang approached the deck, bounced once and then touched down and taxied to a halt with room to spare. At the beginning of March, fixed-wing aircraft began evacuating civilians from Tan Son Nhat Airport through neighboring countries. At dawn on 29 April two A-1 Skyraiders began patrolling the perimeter of Tan Son Nhut at 2,500 feet (760m) until one was shot down, presumably by an SA-7 missile. During the fixed-wing evacuation 50,493 people (including 2,678 Vietnamese orphans) were evacuated from Tan Son Nhut. In all, the Kirk rescued 200 refugees and two U.S. Marine pilots. There was an insert page which read: "Note evacuational signal. [20]:2829 With its available fleet of only 20 Hueys (3 of which were impounded, ditched or damaged at TF76), Air America had moved over 1,000 evacuees to the DAO Compound, the Embassy or out to the ships of TF76. One AC-119 gunship had spent the night of 28/29 April dropping flares and firing on the approaching PAVN. Caption: 127-GVB-279-A150966: Operation Frequent Wind, April 29, 1975. RVNAF Huey is pushed overboard from USS Midway. . Two LZs were now available in the embassy compound, the rooftop for UH-1s and CH-46s and the new parking lot LZ for the heavier CH-53s. Strategic Air Command KC-135 tankers provided air-to-air refueling. The evacuation of the embassy was completed at 07:53 on 30 April, but some Americans chose to stay or were left behind and some 400 third-country nationals were left at the embassy. The Kirk, later redesignated as a frigate (FF-1087), continued to serve until she was decommissioned on 6 August 1993. NavSource As they approached the helicopters had taken rifle and M-79 grenade fire from ARVN troops but without causing any apparent damage. [20]:29. Please rescue me. You will find some squadron reports that may help and photos with dates and dates and descriptions. WebAs the North Vietnamese continued to advance south, President Gerald R. Ford announced on April 3, 1975, that U.S. aircraft delivering supplies to Saigon would carry Vietnamese orphans to the United States on their return flights. WebTwenty-six ships of Task Force 76, including the Kirk, converged on the South China Sea for Operation Frequent Windthe evacuation of Saigon. [6] Also on 1 April, Plan Alamo was implemented to defend the DAO compound and its annex so it could serve as a holding area for 1,500 evacuees for five days. [6] Finally, on 19 April, a simple procedure was implemented that cleared up the paperwork jam and the number of evacuees dramatically increased. Fixed guns and launchers were disassembled and their operating mechanisms deep-sixed. [38] Hubert van Es' photo is frequently used in political cartoons commenting on US foreign policy.
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