First hand account of the Fall of Saigon

Hi,

The day Saigon fell (May 75) [S/B April 30 '75] I was assigned to a cruiser, U.S. Oklahoma City, operating in the South China Sea. We were in close to the beach so we could provide gunfire support. When the city started to fall, the Vietnamese began to load their helos with family members and fly out to the ships assembled off the coast. Most of the Pacific Fleet was amassed in the area, including two carriers. I've never seen so many helos airborne at one time. It was not a coordinated plan. Pilots, who could, took helos, loaded them with family, and headed out sea to look for a carrier to land on. Unfortunately, without coordination many found themselves up in the sky, over the water, with very little fuel left and no carrier deck space available to land on.

The carriers had to keep deck space clear to launch and receive its aircraft in order to provide air cover. Of course, they took as many helos aboard as possible. Even though the carriers were using their aircraft towing rigs to push empty helos over, they just couldn't keep up! There were just too many helos in the air and some were running out of gas. So we started to take them aboard any ship with a helo pad. That posed a problem because once there was a helo on the pad, there was no place to put anymore. So we used damage control parties to push the helos over the side as fast as they were unloaded to make room for another. They were loaded with women, children and valuables (primarily gold), and they were all armed to the teeth. We had problems with the helo safety nets in pushing the empty birds over the side.

It was taking too much time to get them clear of the ship. So somebody came up with the idea of flying them off. We put the motor whaleboat in the water and stationed it about a hundred yards from the ship. As the remaining helos came aboard, everyone but the pilot was unloaded and rushed to a safe area. The doors were physically torn from the cockpit, and the pilot was instructed to fly out abeam at a low altitude and head the helo away from the ship. When he was sure he was clear of the ship, he was told to jump out of the helo for recovery by the motor whale boat. I don't remember how many helos landed onboard, but there were six or eight that were "flown off". We ended up with almost 200 people and no one was injured. That's remarkable in that none of the pilots had ever landed on a ship before.

We had to disarm all them. We fed them and gave medical to those who needed it. They were given blankets and allowed to use the head. All those except those requiring medical attention were kept up on deck under guard until the next morning. At day break the next morning, we anchored in the bay at Vung Tau, about 20 miles north of Saigon. All the Vietnamese were taken by LCM's to Troop Transports brought in in anticipation that something like this might happen. The people (hundreds) were taken to camps in either Thailand or Subic Bay. Some of the troop ships left Vung Tau a little before we did.

I'm sure you have seen pictures ofthe troops being pulled off the beach at Dunkirk. Those ships looked just like those leaving Dunkirk, except the decks were not crowded with bearded G.I.s or British Tommies. They were filled with women and children So anytime I see helos around ships, I think of those days. I don't know how many of the helos were salvaged. But there were more up than I had ever seen before and a lot were shoved into the sea.

Take Care!

JL