U.S. officials decided to stop using the less maneuverable C-141s, which had been loaded with up to 316 evacuees, and use only C-130s, which had been taking off with more than 240. [6]:72 At 21:00 on 28 April Major General Homer D. Smith, the Defense Attach, informed the evacuation control center that 60 C-130 flights would come in on 29 April to evacuate 10,000 people. [20], At 11:00 the security situation at the Air America compound was deteriorating as General Carey did not wish to risk his Marines by extending his perimeter to cover the Air America compound (LZ 40), so all Air America helicopters from this time operated out of the tennis courts in the DAO Annex (LZ 35). [10] With the evacuation of the landing control teams from the Annex and Alamo completed, General Carey ordered the withdrawal of the ground security forces from the DAO Compound around 22:50. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. Integer malesuada metus nec metus lacinia pellentesque. [6] The fall of Xun Lc on 21 April and the resignation of President Nguyn Vn Thiu on 21 April brought greater crowds seeking evacuation to the DAO Compound as it became apparent that South Vietnam's days were numbered. [21] Air America UH-1s began ferrying evacuees from other smaller assembly points throughout the city and dropping them on the Embassy's rooftop LZ. . Harnage boarded an Air America Huey from the Embassy's rooftop heliport and flew the short distance to the Pittman Building. On 2 May, Task Force 76, carrying the Operation Frequent Wind evacuees and 44,000 seaborne evacuees and the RVN Navy group set sail for reception centers in the Philippines and Guam.[8]. At 10:00 Ambassador Martin confirmed General Smith's assessment and at 10:48 he contacted Washington to recommend Option 4, the helicopter evacuation. [10]:199 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]:73, At 03:30 on 29 April a PAVN rocket hit Guardpost 1 at the DAO Compound, instantly killing Marine Corporals Charles McMahon and Darwin Judge. On the ground floor a water tanker was driven through the chancery door and the crowd began to surge up through the building toward the rooftop. 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. 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]:118 Other helicopters dropped off their passengers and were then ditched into the sea by their pilots, close to the ships, their pilots bailing out at the last moment to be picked up by rescue boats. Caption: 127-GVB-279-A150966: Operation Frequent Wind, April 29, 1975. San Diego, CA 92101. [10], 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. This will be followed by the playing of I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas. 21st SOS Frequent Wind and Mayaguez Incident gallery, Video clip: Footage of evacuation operations underway aboard USS Midway, including historic Cessna O-1 landing by VNAF pilot Major Buang, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NSC_Meeting,_April_9,_1975_%28topic-_Vietnam,_Cambodia%29%28Gerald_Ford_Library%29%281552383%29.pdf, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/90-29/Ch3.htm, Chapter 5: The Final Curtain, 1973 1975, Air America: Played a Crucial Part of the Emergency Helicopter Evacuation of Saigon p.1, U.S. Marines in Vietnam: The Bitter End, 19731975 (Marine Corps Vietnam Operational Histories Series), Operation Frequent Wind: April 29-30, 1975, Thomas Polgar, CIA official during the fall of Saigon, dies, Decent Interval: An Insider's Account of Saigon's Indecent End Told by the CIA's Chief Strategy Analyst in Vietnam, The Air Force in Southeast Asia The end of U.S. involvement 1973 - 1975, 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, Honorable Exit: How a Few Brave Americans Risked All to Save Our Vietnamese Allies at the End of the War, 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, Photographer who took famous Vietnam War image dies, Option 1: Evacuation by commercial airlift from, Option 2: Evacuation by military airlift from Tan Son Nhut and other South Vietnamese airports as required, Option 3: Evacuation by sea lift from Saigon port, Option 4: Evacuation by helicopter to US Navy ships in the. Operation Frequent Wind 1975 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. [34] The USS Midway is a museum ship in San Diego. The Anniversary of Operation Frequent Wind [17] Members of the police in Saigon had been promised evacuation in exchange for protecting the American evacuation buses and control of the crowds in the city during the evacuation. WebOperation Frequent Wind was carried out 2930 April 1975 during the last days of the Vietnam War. 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 staff of 9th MAB prescribed altitudes, routes, and checkpoints for flight safety for the operation. To avert mid-air collisions, the planners chose altitudes which would provide separation of traffic and also a capability to see and avoid the enemy's AAA, SA-2 and SA-7 missile threat (6,500 feet (2,000m) for flights inbound to Saigon and 5,500 feet (1,700m) for those outbound from Saigon to the Navy ships). Page not found Instagram The Kirk, later redesignated as a frigate (FF-1087), continued to serve until she was decommissioned on 6 August 1993. [27] Forty-nine Americans, including dependents, were also left behind or chose to remain in Saigon. All planning would have to be conducted with the utmost discretion. [10]:197 With the evacuation of the landing control teams from the Annex and Alamo completed, General Carey ordered the withdrawal of the ground security forces from the DAO Compound around 22:50. Strategic Air Command KC-135 tankers provided air-to-air refueling. [6]:8 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]:90 Finally at 10:51 the order was given by CINCPAC to commence Option 4; due to confusion in the chain of command, General Carey did not receive the execute order until 12:15. Operation Frequent Wind ship disposition 1975. [10]:198, By 02:15 on 30 April one CH-46 and one CH-53 were landing at the embassy every 10 minutes. It's a laundry ship". [6] Between 04:30 and 08:00 up to 40 artillery rounds and rockets hit around the DAO Compound. At approximately 14:30, Air America Bell 205 serial number "N47004" landed on the roof of the Pittman Apartment Building at 22 Gia Long Street to collect a senior Vietnamese intelligence source and his family. The airlift resulted in a number of enduring images. Fall of Saigon She was commissioned on 9 September 1972 at Long Beach, California. [6] C-130s leaving Tan Son Nhut reported receiving PAVN .51 cal and 37mm anti-aircraft (AAA) fire,[6] while sporadic PAVN rocket and artillery attacks also started to hit the airport and air base. At 07:00 the AC-119 was firing on PAVN to the east of Tan Son Nhut when it too was hit by an SA-7 and fell in flames to the ground. Returning in February 2016 41 years later he held a small black & white photo of him as a boy being carried from a Huey on the flight deck by his father during the evacuation of Vietnam Vu Duong stands in front of a black & white photo of himself as a child being carried by his father escaping Saigon 41 years ago. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong. The Pacific crossing was extraordinarily calm and peaceful. Tens of thousands of Vietnamese evacuated themselves by sea or air. The fixed-wing evacuation was terminated and Operation Frequent Wind began. You've read 1 out of 5 free articles of Naval History this month. [21] At 03:27 President Gerald Ford ordered that no more than 19 additional lifts would be allowed to complete the evacuation. [6]:37 President Ford, in an address to the American public on 11 April, promised to evacuate Vietnamese civilians of various categories. Operation Frequent Wind As this was happening, a firefight between two ARVN units broke out and caught the rearmost buses in the crossfire, disabling two of the vehicles. The weather conditions deteriorated as the operation continued. More than 7,000 people were evacuated by helicopter from various points in Saigon. [38] Hubert van Es' photo is frequently used in political cartoons commenting on US foreign policy. Available for both RF and RM licensing. But there were other issueschief among them pets. The curtain of haze over Saigon so altered the diminished daylight that line of sight visibility was only a mile. Sporadic gunfire from around the embassy passed over the rooftop. [21], By the morning of 29 April, it was estimated that approximately 10,000 people had gathered around the embassy, while some 2,500 evacuees were in the embassy and consular compounds. It immediately turned toward the threatening radar and fifteen to twenty anti-aircraft weapons opened up on it and the F-4D. Tens of thousands of Vietnamese evacuated themselves by sea or air. It was carried out on 2930 April 1975, during the last days of the Vietnam War. A C-130 Airborne Command and Control controlled all US air operations over land. Despite receiving sporadic PAVN AAA fire, USAF and USN aircraft made no attacks on AAA or SAM sites during the evacuation. The fixed-wing evacuation was terminated and Operation Frequent Wind began. Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. We forgot them. RVNAF F-5s took off in pursuit, but they were unable to intercept the A-37s. [10]:196 Between 19:00 and 21:00 General Carey transferred 3 platoons (130 men) of BLT 2/4 into the embassy compound to provide additional security and assistance for the embassy. 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. Do not disclose to other personnel. [14], At 03:58, C-130E, #72-1297, flown by a crew from the 776th Tactical Airlift Squadron, was destroyed by a 122mm rocket while taxiing to pick up refugees after offloading a BLU-82 at Tan Son Nhut Air Base. [6]:70 C-130s leaving Tan Son Nhut reported receiving PAVN .51 cal and 37mm anti-aircraft (AAA) fire,[6]:7172 while sporadic PAVN rocket and artillery attacks also started to hit the airport and air base. [20] A stolen Air America Bell 204 landed on Kirk, from where US Navy pilots flew it to Okinawa. WebIt was carried out on 2930 April 1975, during the last days of the Vietnam War. [6], With the fall of Saigon imminent, between 18 and 24 April the U.S. Navy assembled ships off Vng Tu under Commander Task Force 76:[8], Task Group 76.4 (Movement Transport Group Alpha), Task Group 76.5 (Movement Transport Group Bravo), Task Group 76.9 (Movement Transport Group Charlie). The tail rotor sheared off and embedded itself in the engine of an Air America Bell 205 that was doing a hot refueling on the helipad at the rear of the ship. Operation Frequent Wind A second Cessna O-1 was also recovered by USS Midway that afternoon. 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. At 15:00 the first CH-53s were sighted heading towards the DAO Compound at Tan Son Nhut. Over the next two days, 7,000 official evacuees were flown from the embassy in Saigon and Tan Son Nhut Air Base outside the city to ships offshore. [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. Files are available under licenses specified on their description page. As they approached the helicopters had taken rifle and M-79 grenade fire from ARVN troops but without causing any apparent damage. [3] The total number of Vietnamese evacuated by Frequent Wind or self-evacuated and ending up in the custody of the United States for processing as refugees to enter the United States totalled 138,869.[2]. Major Kean contacted the Seventh Fleet to advise them of his airlift requirements; until that time the fleet believed that all evacuees had been bussed from the embassy to the DAO Compound and that only two helicopters would be required to evacuate Ambassador Martin and the Marines from the embassy. They were evacuated to Bangkok on 1 August 1976. Soon after the DE, another destroyer escort, and the Midway (CVA-41) moved to Singapore at midmonth, their port visit there was abruptly terminated. [10]:196 The plan for the evacuation included stationing buses and American civilian bus drivers at 28 buildings throughout metropolitan Saigon. [6], At 07:00 on 29 April, Major General Smith advised Ambassador Martin that fixed-wing evacuations should cease and that Operation Frequent Wind, the helicopter evacuation of US personnel and at-risk Vietnamese should commence. The Vietnam War by this time was no longer an American conflict, and the South Vietnamese were in dire straits. The biggest problem occurred when the ARVN unit guarding the main gate at Tan Son Nhut refused to allow the last convoy of buses into the DAO Compound at about 17:45. It immediately turned toward the threatening radar and fifteen to twenty anti-aircraft weapons opened up on it and the F-4D. Each month, I share a new ship story with you, so be sure to check out the rest of my blogs here. File size is 4x smaller. Please check back here for updates regarding this event or the reopening of the USS Midway Museum. [10] This was the last USAF fixed-wing aircraft to leave Tan Son Nhut. Welcome to Karls Korner, a historical blog written by myself, Karl Zingheim Ship Historian of the USS Midway Museum. [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. [14]:567 A Marine AH-1J SeaCobra ran out of fuel while searching for USS Okinawa and ditched at sea, the two crew members were rescued by a boat from USS Kirk. Companies E and F respectively occupied the northern and southern sections between the DAO headquarters and the DAO Annex. [20], 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. [20]:2425 A stolen Air America Bell 204 landed on Kirk, from where US Navy pilots flew it to Okinawa. On 2 May, the ragtag navy began its 1,012-mile trek to Subic Bay, the Philippines. Major Buang, Wife and 5 child." After being struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 11 January 1995, she was sold to Taiwan on 29 September 1999, and she continues to serve as the ROCS Fen Yang (FF-934). Homer asks the helicopter pilot if they are being taken to an aircraft carrier and is told that "the closest vessel is the USS Walter Mondale. A third wave of two CH-53s from HMH-463 and eight USAF CH-53Cs and two USAF HH-53s of the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron (all operating from USS Midway) arrived shortly afterwards. Many of the Vietnamese evacuees were allowed to enter the United States under the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act. [10] At 23:40 Marines destroyed the satellite terminal, the DAO Compound's last means of direct communication with the outside world. [23], 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. [3]:86, The two major evacuation points chosen for Operation Frequent Wind were the DAO Compound next to Tan Son Nhut Airport for American and Vietnamese civilian evacuees, and the U.S. Embassy, Saigon for embassy staff. There will be a lot of people, he told the American. Ambassador Martin refused to accept General Smith's recommendation and instead insisted on visiting Tan Son Nhut to survey the situation for himself. The pilot then crashed the CH-47 into the sea and was rescued by the DEs whaleboat. Company G occupied the eastern section of the Annex, while Company H assumed control of the western section. Web*Vietnam Evacuation (Operation Frequent Wind) 29 to 30 April 1975: Decommissioned, 5 October 2002 Laid up at the Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Pearl Harbor Photo by Peter E. Skoutas EN1 (SW) USS Frederick A-Division: 107k: USS Frederick (LST-1184), decommissioning cake, last night underway, 20 June 2002. By 20:30 the last evacuees had been loaded onto helicopters. continue reading . I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: Operation Frequent Wind ship disposition 1975 - Recreated map.svg, (SVG file, nominally 744 850 pixels, file size: 105 KB), http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en, Creative Commons Zero, Public Domain Dedication, Operation Frequent Wind ship disposition 1975.JPG, Fleet deployment for Operation Frequent Wind.jpg, CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, copyrighted, dedicated to the public domain by copyright holder, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Operation_Frequent_Wind_ship_disposition_1975_-_Recreated_map.svg&oldid=522731238, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the. A flotilla of 26 Republic of Vietnam Navy and other vessels concentrated off Long Sn Island southwest of Vng Tu with 30,000 sailors, their families, and other civilians on board. As the U.S. fleet steamed away from Vietnam, the Kirk was tagged with a mysterious order to return. [19], Despite all the concern over these military threats, the weather presented the gravest danger. When U.S. President Gerald Ford met with the National Security Council on 9 April 1975 he was told by Henry Kissinger that a maximum of 1.7 million people had been identified as possible evacuees and that these included: American citizens and their relatives, the diplomatic corps, the International Commission of Control and Supervision (ICCS), third-country nationals under contract by the U.S. government and the employees of the U.S. and their dependents (estimated at about 200,000 people). During the fixed-wing evacuation 50,493 people (including 2,678 Vietnamese orphans) were evacuated from Tan Son Nhut. 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. At 15:00 the first CH-53s were sighted heading towards the DAO Compound at Tan Son Nhut. In any case this effectively marked the end of the commercial airlift from Tan Son Nhut. Operation FREQUENT WIND Photo Around 12:00 five or six RVNAF UH-1Hs and one of the stolen ICCS UH-1Hs, were circling around Blue Ridge. During the course of the operation an unknown number of RVNAF helicopters flew out of what remained of South Vietnam to the fleet. [34] The USS Midway is a museum ship in San Diego. [6]:27 By 16 April, Alamo was complete: water, C-rations, petroleum, oil, and lubricants had been stockpiled; backup electricity generators had been installed; sanitary facilities were completed; and concertina wire protected the perimeter. [2]:92. Official U.S. Marine Corps photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. [20] By 10:30 all of Air America's fixed-wing aircraft had departed Tan Son Nhut, evacuating all non-essential personnel and as many Vietnamese evacuees as they could carry and headed for Thailand. From 12 to 14 May, she was alerted, although not utilized, for the recovery of SS Mayagez, a US merchantman with 39 crew, seized in international waters on 12 May by As the War was coming to an end on April 29th to 30th, 1975, Operation Frequent Wind airlifted about 7100 at risk Vietnamese (to death from the Communist Viet Cong) and American civilians out of Sai Gon, the capital of South Viet Nam. One condition of entry was that all the Vietnamese ships and their refugees had to be disarmed. 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". Frequent Wind at the Fort Worth Aviation Museum. See also: Operation New Life, Operation Babylift and Operation New Arrivals. [6], At dawn the RVNAF began to haphazardly depart Tan Son Nhut Air Base as A-37s, F-5s, C-7s, C-119s and C-130s departed for Thailand while UH-1s took off in search of the ships of TF-76. Duluth LPD-6 Operation Frequent Wind April 30 They were evacuated to Bangkok on 1 August 1976. CNN April 30, 1975 marks the date of Operation Frequent Wind, one of the largest humanitarian rescues in naval history. The SeaCobras could also serve as Forward Air Controllers. One, a Boeing CH-47 Chinook, was too large to land on the destroyer escort. The Pittman Building was not an approved LZ, but when the agreed pickup point at the Lee Hotel at 6 Chien Si Circle was declared unusable, CIA Station Chief Tom Polgar asked Oren B. Harnage, Deputy Chief of the Embassy's Air Branch to change the pickup to the Pittman Building, which was the home of the Assistant Station Chief and had an elevator shaft believed capable of supporting the weight of a Huey. [5] The Saigon plan had been developed over a number of years. [6], Throughout April, the "thinning out" proceeded slowly, largely because the South Vietnamese government was slow to issue papers allowing Americans to take Vietnamese dependents with them, with the result that MAC aircraft were often departing empty. Operation Frequent Wind Rather than loading as many evacuees as possible, each evacuee was required to have a seat and a seatbelt, reducing the number of passengers that could be carried on each flight to 94 in a C-141 and 75 in a C-130. Moments later a RVNAF UH-1H attempted to land on the helipad, locked rotors with the Air America Bell, almost pushing it overboard. The U.S. government was continuing to observe its obligations under the Accords, notwithstanding the North Vietnamese invasion. Operation Frequent Wind ship disposition 1975 [10] In late April, the MSG Marines were ordered to abandon Marshall Hall/Marine House, their billet at 204 Hong Thap Tu Street (now 204 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street), and move into the recreation area in the embassy compound. [16] Japanese journalists, concerned that they would not recognize the tune, had to get someone to sing it to them. and eight destroyer types for naval gunfire, escort, and area defense, including: The and carrier attack groups of Task Force 77 in the South China Sea provided air cover while Task Force 73 ensured logistic support.
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