in Vietnam RVNAF F-5s took off in pursuit, but they were unable to intercept the A-37s. Non-subscribers can read five free Naval History articles per month. Operation Frequent Wind "[15] Frank Snepp later recalled the arrival of helicopters at the embassy while the song was playing over the radio as a "bizarre Kafkaesque time". This will be followed by the playing of I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas. Eventually the ARVN commander controlling the gates agreed to permit the remaining buses to enter the compound. [6] 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. At 10:00 Ambassador Martin confirmed General Smith's assessment and at 10:48 he contacted Washington to recommend Option 4, the helicopter evacuation. [6] 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. [10], On 25 April, 40 Marines from the 9th MAB on USS Hancock were flown in by Air America helicopters in civilian clothes to the DAO compound to augment the 18 Marine Security Guards assigned to defend the embassy; an additional six Marines were assigned to protect Ambassador Martin. Harnage leaned out of the Huey and helped approximately 15 evacuees board the Huey from the narrow helipad. Events in South Vietnam were approaching a crescendo of panic. 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. [20]:22 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. By 20:30 the last evacuees had been loaded onto helicopters. All structured data from the file namespace is available under the. 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. [6]:24 On 4 April, a C-5A aircraft carrying 250 Vietnamese orphans and their escorts suffered explosive decompression over the sea near Vng Tu and made a crash-landing while attempting to return to Tan Son Nhut; 153 people on board died in the crash. The Marines were flying the last helicopter out of Saigon, an AH-1J Cobra gunship that provided aerial coverage for the evacuation force. At the beginning of the operation, pilots in the first wave reported the weather as 2,000 feet (610m) scattered, 20,000 feet (6,100m) overcast with 15 miles (24km) visibility, except in haze over Saigon, where visibility decreased to one mile. [10]:187, The air wings of USS Enterprise and USS Coral Sea, were ready to provide close air support and anti-aircraft suppression if required with their A-6 and A-7 attack aircraft, and would provide continuous fighter cover the evacuation route including by VF-1 and VF-2, flying from Enterprise with the first combat deployment of the new F-14A Tomcat. In Operation Frequent Wind a total of 1,373 Americans and 5,595 Vietnamese and third-country nationals were evacuated by helicopter. 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. [10], During the demolition of the embassy, the metal staircase leading from the rooftop to the helipad was removed and sent back to the United States, where it is now on display at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. 45 years ago, the USS Midway was part of the largest humanitarian effort in naval history, a proud and patriotic accomplishment that will forever be ingrained in our history. The staff of 9th MAB prescribed altitudes, routes, and checkpoints for flight safety for the operation. Operation Frequent Wind 29 April In the event, air support was not needed as the North Vietnamese paused for a week at the outskirts of Saigon, possibly waiting for the South Vietnamese government to collapse and avoiding a possible confrontation with the U.S. by allowing the mostly-unopposed evacuation of Americans from Saigon. 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. The Cobra waved off just as its engines flamed out. 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://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Operation_Frequent_Wind&oldid=1152491702, Battles and operations of the Vietnam War, Battles and operations of the Vietnam War in 1975, 20th-century military history of the United States, United States Marine Corps in the Vietnam War, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the United States Marine Corps, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 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, This page was last edited on 30 April 2023, at 15:26. The Air America pilot shut down his helicopter and left it. 910 N. Harbor Drive All Air America flights had ceased by 21:00. [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. [20]:29. The system worked so efficiently that the buses were able to make three return journeys rather than the expected one. The airlift resulted in a number of enduring images. Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. They were evacuated to Bangkok on 1 August 1976. [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.