What an ignominious end to our involvement in Vietnam. Bravo to all the brave people who participated, from our military to the commercial airlines, Pan Am and TWA, among others, whose crews volunteered to go in to save lives. 747 aircraft were taking off with double the payload (600+) they were licensed for, having to dodge missiles fired by the North Vietnam troops. Those helicopter pilots! Most of their names probably lost to history now. Once again, Americans stood up and saved lives.
A World Airways 727-100QC lifted off from Da Nang for Tan Son Nhat Airport in Saigon with over 300 people on board--268 in the cabin and 60 in the cargo holds. The aircraft even had people in the wheel wells, so they had to fly the leg wheels down.
Both the Naval Aviation Museum and the USS Midway Museum have O-1s painted in the markings of Buang-Ly's aircraft. Pensacola says that theirs is the original, and I read an article corroborating that. The note that Maj. Buang-Ly dropped on Midway's deck is in the USS Midway Museum, but I believe their O-1 is a different aircraft painted into the same markings as the original.
We can thank CAPT Chambers of the Midway and CAPT Joe Cheshire, CO of the supply base on Guam, for preserving the aircraft. Midway's crew took in Maj. Buang-Ly and his family, then raised money to help them start their lives in the United States. CAPT Chambers thought he might get court-martialed for ordering his crew to shove helicopters into the water to create landing space, but he was not brought up on charges and, in fact, made flag rank--the first African-American graduate of the USNA to do so.
One Pan Am stewardess, with the collusion of her crew, including the flight deck, managed to get her four sisters out on one flight. They were disguised with wigs and spare uniforms to make them look like stewardesses. Those Baby Lift flight were harrowing too, with babies being sick, because they were not used to the milk and baby formula being fed to them. The crews were having to work around people sitting in the aisles of the aircraft, children stuffed two and three to a seat. But, as I said in my earlier post, Americans (and others) stood up for what was the right thing to do.
“President Gerald Ford announced Operation Babylift in early April, as it became clear that the US would withdraw its presence from Vietnam entirely. Ford described the babylift as a humanitarian “mission of mercy.” It was, just as importantly, a deflection from military defeat and abandonment. A month later, 2,894 Vietnamese and Cambodian children were on their way to American homes; approximately 1,300 others were adopted to Australia, Canada, and across Europe.
Some of the first children were flown away on a C-5A Galaxy transport aircraft, a plane whose interior could rival a gymnasium. Orphanage workers loaded the cargo hold with 200-plus children, an endeavor “like trying to carry loose eggs in the bed of a pickup truck,” as journalist Dana Sachs described in her book, The Life We Were Given.Twelve minutes after takeoff, a door in the rear of the plane blew out, ripping a hole in the side of the plane. The plane crashed into a rice paddy, crushing the cargo hold where the children were kept — 138 died, including 78 babies.”
Well told, Tom. People today don't remember that in the late 1960s, when US forces got involved with Vietnam, the Chinese and North Vietnamese really believed in the domino theory--that victory in South Vietnam would lead to Communist regimes all across Southeast Asia. I was in college at the time, and one of my political science professor was an Australian who was no particular fan of US involvement in Vietnam. HIs specialty was Indonesia--he had written a book of more than 500 pages (maybe 700) on the Indonesian Communist Party. Just as I began his course, in the fall of 1965, came the abortive Communist coup in Indonesia, followed quickly by the army's counterattack that wiped out the Communists (and made the professor's book into a history text). He told us that had the US not been in Vietnam, the Indonesian army would have thrown in with the Communists. Imagine how different history would have been had that happened. It would have been very bad news for the US and for non-Communists across the globe.
What an ignominious end to our involvement in Vietnam. Bravo to all the brave people who participated, from our military to the commercial airlines, Pan Am and TWA, among others, whose crews volunteered to go in to save lives. 747 aircraft were taking off with double the payload (600+) they were licensed for, having to dodge missiles fired by the North Vietnam troops. Those helicopter pilots! Most of their names probably lost to history now. Once again, Americans stood up and saved lives.
A World Airways 727-100QC lifted off from Da Nang for Tan Son Nhat Airport in Saigon with over 300 people on board--268 in the cabin and 60 in the cargo holds. The aircraft even had people in the wheel wells, so they had to fly the leg wheels down.
$5,000,000,000 in '75 would be worth $29,725,000,000 today. Fuck me.
Both the Naval Aviation Museum and the USS Midway Museum have O-1s painted in the markings of Buang-Ly's aircraft. Pensacola says that theirs is the original, and I read an article corroborating that. The note that Maj. Buang-Ly dropped on Midway's deck is in the USS Midway Museum, but I believe their O-1 is a different aircraft painted into the same markings as the original.
We can thank CAPT Chambers of the Midway and CAPT Joe Cheshire, CO of the supply base on Guam, for preserving the aircraft. Midway's crew took in Maj. Buang-Ly and his family, then raised money to help them start their lives in the United States. CAPT Chambers thought he might get court-martialed for ordering his crew to shove helicopters into the water to create landing space, but he was not brought up on charges and, in fact, made flag rank--the first African-American graduate of the USNA to do so.
One Pan Am stewardess, with the collusion of her crew, including the flight deck, managed to get her four sisters out on one flight. They were disguised with wigs and spare uniforms to make them look like stewardesses. Those Baby Lift flight were harrowing too, with babies being sick, because they were not used to the milk and baby formula being fed to them. The crews were having to work around people sitting in the aisles of the aircraft, children stuffed two and three to a seat. But, as I said in my earlier post, Americans (and others) stood up for what was the right thing to do.
I’d never heard this story before….😔
“President Gerald Ford announced Operation Babylift in early April, as it became clear that the US would withdraw its presence from Vietnam entirely. Ford described the babylift as a humanitarian “mission of mercy.” It was, just as importantly, a deflection from military defeat and abandonment. A month later, 2,894 Vietnamese and Cambodian children were on their way to American homes; approximately 1,300 others were adopted to Australia, Canada, and across Europe.
Some of the first children were flown away on a C-5A Galaxy transport aircraft, a plane whose interior could rival a gymnasium. Orphanage workers loaded the cargo hold with 200-plus children, an endeavor “like trying to carry loose eggs in the bed of a pickup truck,” as journalist Dana Sachs described in her book, The Life We Were Given.Twelve minutes after takeoff, a door in the rear of the plane blew out, ripping a hole in the side of the plane. The plane crashed into a rice paddy, crushing the cargo hold where the children were kept — 138 died, including 78 babies.”
https://www.theverge.com/cs/features/651701/vietnam-operation-babylift-adoption-transnational
And I was already planning on visiting the USS Midway tomorrow. Now another reason to do so.
The O-1 hangs from the overhead down on the hangar deck.
Thanks for the Heads Up! (Sorry, couldn't resist. If someone hands you a softball, hit it!)
Thanks for writing this piece Tom. It was a real nail biter.
Operation Frequent Wind was also the debut of the then new F-14A Tomcat, flying air cover off the Enterprise for the evacuation routes from Saigon.
Well told, Tom. People today don't remember that in the late 1960s, when US forces got involved with Vietnam, the Chinese and North Vietnamese really believed in the domino theory--that victory in South Vietnam would lead to Communist regimes all across Southeast Asia. I was in college at the time, and one of my political science professor was an Australian who was no particular fan of US involvement in Vietnam. HIs specialty was Indonesia--he had written a book of more than 500 pages (maybe 700) on the Indonesian Communist Party. Just as I began his course, in the fall of 1965, came the abortive Communist coup in Indonesia, followed quickly by the army's counterattack that wiped out the Communists (and made the professor's book into a history text). He told us that had the US not been in Vietnam, the Indonesian army would have thrown in with the Communists. Imagine how different history would have been had that happened. It would have been very bad news for the US and for non-Communists across the globe.
The adaptation should be a clue that the book is well worth reading.
I read it! It is excellent and well worth the time.
I thought so too. I've read 5 of Tom's books and they are uniformly outstanding.
Flattery will get you everywhere, Dave. :-)
LMAO. Good writing will get your books bought.
Another great one Tom! You really make these historical images come together! Thank
Thanks, Tom. I was so opposed to that damned war I never read about how difficult the retreat was.
And for another view. From the USS Midway.
https://timesofsandiego.com/military/2025/04/27/how-the-uss-midway-saved-3100-viet-evacuees-and-1-brave-pilot-50-years-ago/
Would it be possible to get this posted over at VVAW?