All Air America flights had ceased by 21:00. [6]:122 Marine pilots accumulated 1,054 flight hours and flew 682 sorties throughout Operation Frequent Wind. Bronze Marine Corps Device(Navy), No person may be issued both the Vietnam Service Medal (VSM) and the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (AFEM) for [21]:6 At 21:30 a CH-53 pilot informed Major Kean that Admiral Whitmire, Commander of Task Force 76 had ordered that operations would cease at 23:00. one award of the Vietnam Service Medal (VSM). Vietnam FREQUENT WIND - Evacuation. [6]:3031, With the cause of the crash still unknown, the C-5 fleet was grounded and the MAC airlift was reduced to using C-141s and C-130s. In the helicopter evacuation a total of 395 Americans and 4,475 Vietnamese and third-country nationals were evacuated from the DAO compound[10]:197 and a further 978 U.S. and 1,120 Vietnamese and third-country nationals from the embassy,[10]:201 giving a total of 1,373 Americans and 5,595 Vietnamese and third country nationals. and 28 March 1973, in the area defined under the Armed Forces [20]:29. Description. With the collapse of South Vietnam, numerous boats and ships, Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) helicopters and some fixed-wing aircraft sailed or flew out to the evacuation fleet. Only one award per operation is authorized. The code is: The temperature in Saigon is 105 degrees and rising. The Military Departments are . As they approached the helicopters had taken rifle and M-79 grenade fire from ARVN troops but without causing any apparent damage. [10]:196 The evacuation from the DAO Compound was completed by about 19:00 after which all helicopters would be routed to the embassy; Major Kean was informed that operations would cease at dark. A South Vietnamese pilot lands his Huey helicopter on the deck of USS Hancock (CV-19). Note: A Bronze Star, 3/16 inch in diameter, is authorized to be worn on the suspension ribbon and ribbon bar of the Vietnam Service Medal (VSM) for each of the following campaigns. [35], On the afternoon of 29 April 1975, Hubert van Es, a Saigon-based photographer for United Press International, took the iconic photo of Operation Frequent Wind of an Air America UH-1 on a rooftop picking up Vietnamese evacuees. A Silver Star, 3/16 inch in diameter, is authorized for wear in place of five (5) Bronze Stars when a total of five (5) campaigns have been recognized. Writer Claude-Michel Schnberg has acknowledged that the musical was inspired by pictures of the evacuation. Official U.S. Marine Corps photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. DIVE! The evacuation of personnel from the DAO compound had lasted nine hours and involved over 50 Marine Corps and Air Force helicopters. But these restrictions were relaxed and eventually ignored altogether as the pace of the evacuation quickened. (Operation Eagle Pull) April 11-13, 1975 Congo July 14, 1960 to September 1, 1962 and . 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. [10]:198, By 02:15 on 30 April one CH-46 and one CH-53 were landing at the embassy every 10 minutes. The SeaCobras could also serve as Forward Air Controllers. military operations. 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. [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. Vietnam, Winter-Spring 1970 01 Nov 69 to 30 Apr 70 Awarded to all personnel assigned or attached to the following units, during the period shown, are authorized to wear the ribbon bar, Gallantry Medal Color, with Palm and Gold Frame. Vietnam Defense Campaign 08 Mar 65 to 24 Dec 65 serving, for one or more days, with an organization (a). Guide to the Khanh Van Thi Nguyen Narrative on Operation Frequent Wind. 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. [10]:179181, It was not known whether the PAVN and/or the ARVN would try to disrupt the evacuation and so the planners had to take all possible contingencies into account to ensure the safety and success of the evacuation. Despite receiving sporadic PAVN AAA fire, USAF and USN aircraft made no attacks on AAA or SAM sites during the evacuation. [21]:7, Major Kean returned to the ground floor of the chancery and ordered his men to withdraw into a large semicircle at the main entrance to the chancery. A South Vietnamese C-130 aircraft, trying to take off was hit by enemy SA-7 rockets and burns on the runway during the evacuation exercises in Saigon. (2). Upon submission of evidence to their commanding officer, personnel who earned the Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB) or Combat Medical Badge (CMB) while a member of the US Army may be authorized to wear the CAR. Vietnam Counter-offensive VII 01 Jul 70 to 30 Jun 71 [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. Vietnam, Summer-Fall 1969 09 Jun 69 to 31 Oct 69 Pilots of other helicopters were told to drop off their passengers and then take off and ditch in the sea, from where they would be rescued. Official U.S. Marine Corps photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. of service between 1 July 1958 and 3 July 1965, inclusive, in an 111. During the fixed-wing evacuation 50,493 people (including 2,678 Vietnamese orphans) were evacuated from Tan Son Nhut. Air America helicopters continued to make rooftop pickups until after nightfall by which time navigation became increasingly difficult. operations. Click on unit logos above for eligibility. 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. All planning would have to be conducted with the utmost discretion. [20]:21 At some point during the morning RVNAF personnel took five ICCS UH-1H Hueys and one Air America Bell 204 from the Air America ramp. On that final day, USAF aircraft flew a total of 1,422 sorties over Saigon. The staff of 9th MAB prescribed altitudes, routes, and checkpoints for flight safety for the operation. [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. [6]:92, The evacuation proceeded without interference from the PAVN. approved. The command ship USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) was located approximately 28 km from Vung Tau, Vietnam, at 1500 hrs on 29 April 1975. The two enlisted crewmen survived, but the bodies of the pilots were not recovered. Click on the units you served with to see eligibility for U.S. issued unit action awards However, no person shall be entitled to [25][26] The South Korean civilians were evacuated in 1976, while General Rhee and two other diplomats were held captive until April 1980. [6]:67 Also on 25 April the Federal Aviation Administration banned commercial flights into South Vietnam. serving, for one or more days, aboard a naval vessel directly 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. [6]:99 The Hanoi leadership, reckoning that completion of the evacuation would lessen the risk of American intervention, had apparently instructed General Dng not to target the airlift itself. stipulates that personnel who were awarded the Armed Forces Expeditioanry Medal (AFEM) for their [21]:6 At the same time, General Carey met Admiral Whitmire to convince him to resume flights to the embassy despite pilot fatigue and poor visibility caused by darkness, fires and bad weather. Many of the Vietnamese evacuees were allowed to enter the United States under the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act. The U.S. Embassy in Saigon was intended to only be a secondary evacuation point for embassy staff, but it was soon overwhelmed with evacuees and desperate South Vietnamese. All personnel who participated in Operation Frequent Wind (the. On the afternoon of 30 April, TF-76 moved away from the coast, picking up more refugees as they went. The following amplifying remarks are furnished as guidance. [6]:34, 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. List of Authorized Campaign Stars. Commander Task Force 76 received the order to execute Operation Frequent Wind (initially Talon Vise), the evacuation of U.S. personnel and Vietnamese who might suffer as a result of their past service to the Allied effort. [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. 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. XIII. Aircraft flying air cover for the evacuation reported being tracked with surface to air radar in the vicinity of Bin Ha Air Base (which had fallen to the PAVN on 25 April), but there were no missile launches. We located a number of references to photographs and documents primarily held by our colleagues at the National Archives at College Park, MD related to these subjects. At 15:00 the first CH-53s were sighted heading towards the DAO Compound at Tan Son Nhut. Squadrons or units embarked in a ship, 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. Eventually the ARVN commander controlling the gates agreed to permit the remaining buses to enter the compound. Consolidation I1 01 Dec 71 to 29 Mar 72 [6]:38[10]:178179, By late March, the embassy began to reduce the number of U.S. citizens in Vietnam by encouraging dependents and non-essential personnel to leave the country by commercial flights and on Military Airlift Command (MAC) C-141 and C-5 aircraft, which were still bringing in emergency military supplies. Join me as I look back 44 Years Earlier In 1973 America's fighting in Southeast Asia ended, placing the combat burden against North Vietnam squarely on the shoulders of the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN). 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. At 10:00 Ambassador Martin confirmed General Smith's assessment and at 10:48 he contacted Washington to recommend Option 4, the helicopter evacuation. This award may also be conferred upon units of Armed Forces of friendly foreign nations serving with the Armed Forces of the United States for outstanding performance in action, provided that such units shall meet the standards established for the Armed Forces of the United States. Thus, this operation ended the U.s. Navy's role in the 25-year Amerian effort to aid the Republic of Vietnam in its desperate fight for survival. authorized for wear on the suspension ribbon and ribbon bar of [6]:97 The second wave of 12 CH-53s from HMH-463 landed in the DAO Compound at 15:15 bringing in the rest of the BLT. She began her deployment heading West and . Her belongings will be tagged with the same number due to the language barrier between the refugees and Marines. The operation ended at 0900 on April 30, and by noon that day, Communist flags waved over Saigon's Presidential Palace. XVIII. [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. 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