عملية الريح المتكررة

عملية الريح المتكررة Operation Frequent Wind
جزء من سقوط سايگون، حرب ڤيتنام
A South Vietnamese helicopter is pushed overboard from USS Okinawa to clear deck space for more incoming helicopters
التاريخ 29–30 أبريل 1975 الموقع Saigon, 17 nautical miles (31 km) from the Vũng Tàu Peninsula النتيجة نجاح عملياتي أمريكي 7,000 Americans and Vietnamese evacuated by US forces; US Embassy evacuated بدء سقوط سايگون
المتحاربون
الولايات المتحدة ڤيتنام الجنوبية	ڤيتنام الشمالية ڤيت كونگ
القادة والزعماء
نائب الأدميرال George P. Steele General Richard E. Carey	الجنرال Văn Tiến Dũng
الضحايا والخسائر
2 قتلى الوغى 2 مفقودين في البحر	غير معروف

عملية الريح المتكررة Operation Frequent Wind كانت المرحلة الأخيرة من إجلاء المدنيين الأمريكان والڤيتناميين "المهدَدين" من سايگون، ڤيتنام الجنوبية، قبل أن يستولي على المدينة North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) in the Fall of Saigon. It was carried out on 29–30 April 1975, during the last days of the Vietnam War. More than 7,000 people were evacuated by helicopter from various points in Saigon. The airlift resulted in a number of enduring images.

Evacuation plans already existed as a standard procedure for American embassies. At the beginning of March, fixed-wing aircraft began evacuating civilians from Tan Son Nhat Airport through neighboring countries. By mid-April, contingency plans were in place and preparations were underway for a possible helicopter evacuation. As the imminent collapse of Saigon became evident, the U.S. Navy assembled Task Force 76 off the coast near Vũng Tàu to support a helicopter evacuation and provide air support if required. 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.^:14

On 28 April, Tan Son Nhut Air Base (next to the airport) came under artillery fire and attack from Vietnamese People's Air Force aircraft. The fixed-wing evacuation was terminated and Operation Frequent Wind began. During the fixed-wing evacuation 50,493 people (including 2,678 Vietnamese orphans) were evacuated from Tan Son Nhut. The evacuation took place primarily from the Defense Attaché Office compound, beginning around 14:00 on the afternoon of 29 April, and ending that night with only limited small arms damage to the helicopters. 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. 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.

Tens of thousands of Vietnamese evacuated themselves by sea or air. 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. Helicopters began to clog ship decks and eventually, some were pushed overboard to allow others to land. 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. In Operation Frequent Wind a total of 1,373 Americans and 5,595 Vietnamese and third-country nationals were evacuated by helicopter.^:258 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.^:92 This operation was the debut combat deployment of the F-14 Tomcat aircraft.

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 التخطيط

Minutes of President Gerald Ford's National Security Council meeting on 9 April 1975 when evacuation plans were extensively discussed

By 1975, the Frequent Wind plan aimed to evacuate about 8,000 US citizens and third-country nationals, but it was never able to estimate the number of South Vietnamese to include.^: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. Taken with other categories of Vietnamese, the number quickly passed 200,000.^:40 The Frequent Wind plan set out four possible evacuation options:^:9

• Option 1: Evacuation by commercial airlift from Tan Son Nhut and other South Vietnamese airports as required
• 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 South China Sea

With Option 4, the helicopter evacuation would be expected to be similar to Operation Eagle Pull, the American evacuation by air of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on 12 April 1975.

 قوة المهمة 76

US Air Force HH-53 helicopters on the deck of يوإس‌إس Midway during Operation Frequent Wind, April 1975

Map showing the disposition of U.S. Navy ships at the start of Operation Frequent Wind

Ships of TF 76 wait off Vũng Tàu for the start of the operation

 Tan Son Nhut under attack

RVNAF C-130A burns at Tan Son Nhut after rocket attack on 29 April

 إير أمريكا

المقالة الرئيسية: إير أمريكا (خطوط جوية)

South Vietnamese refugees arrive on a U.S. Navy vessel during Operation Frequent Wind.

As part of the evacuation plan agreed with the DAO, Air America committed 24 of its 28 available helicopters to support the evacuation and 31 pilots agreed to stay in Saigon to support the evacuation; this meant that most helicopters would have only one pilot rather than the usual two.^:36 At 08:30 on 29 April, with the shelling of Tan Son Nhut Airport subsiding, Air America began ferrying its helicopter and fixed-wing pilots from their homes in Saigon to the Air America compound at Tan Son Nhut, across the road from the DAO Compound. Air America helicopters started flying to the rooftop LZs in Saigon and either shuttled the evacuees back to the DAO Compound or flew out to the ships of TF76.^: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.^: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.^:20

Air Vice Marshal Ky arrives on USS Midway.

 مجمع DAO

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.^:91 During their approach to the compound, Carey and Gray got a firsthand view of the PAVN's firepower as they shelled nearby Tan Son Nhut Airport with ground, rocket, and artillery fire. They quickly established an austere command post in preparation for the arrival of the Marine CH-53s and the ground security force.^:189

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  9th MAB intelligence photo of the DAO Compound with LZs marked

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  9th MAB post-operation map of the DAO Compound and Air America Compound with LZs marked

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  A Marine provides security as helicopters land at the DAO Compound

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  USMC CH-53s at LZ 38

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  Vietnamese evacuees board a CH-53 at LZ 39

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  Aerial reconnaissance photos of the destroyed DAO Headquarters building with Air America Compound in the foreground

 السفارة

Aerial view of the US Embassy, Saigon, showing chancery building (left), parking lot (center) and Consulate compound and French Embassy (top)

The last members of the Marine Security Guard land on USS Okinawa

 فوضى في البحر

During the course of the operation an unknown number of RVNAF helicopters flew out of what remained of South Vietnam to the fleet. Around 12:00 five or six RVNAF UH-1Hs and one of the stolen ICCS UH-1Hs, were circling around Blue Ridge. The RVNAF pilots had been instructed after dropping off their passengers to ditch their helicopters and they would then be picked up by one of the ship's tenders. The pilot of the stolen ICCS Huey had been told to ditch off the port quarter of the ship, but seemed reluctant to do so, flying around the ship to the starboard bow he jumped from his helicopter at a height of 40 feet (12 m). His helicopter turned and hit the side of Blue Ridge before hitting the sea. 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. The Air America pilot shut down his helicopter and left it and moments later a RVNAF UH-1H attempted to land on the helipad, locked rotors with the Air America Bell, almost pushing it overboard.^:24–25 The stolen Air America Bell 204, landed on Kirk, from where US Navy pilots flew it to Okinawa.^:20

So many RVNAF helicopters landed on the TF76 ships that some 45 UH-1 Hueys and at least one CH-47 Chinook were pushed overboard to make room for more helicopters to land.^: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.

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  Sea Stallions returning from the DAO Compound approach USS Midway

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  Evacuees offloaded onto USS Midway

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  RVNAF Hueys and a CH-47 Chinook arrive at USS Midway

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  RVNAF Huey full with evacuees on the deck of USS Midway

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  RVNAF Huey is pushed overboard from USS Midway.

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  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. The note read "Can you move these helicopter to the other side, I can land on your runway, I can fly 1 hour more, we have enough time to move. Please rescue me. Major Buang, Wife and 5 child." Midway's commanding officer, Captain L.C. Chambers ordered the flight deck crew to clear the landing area; in the process an estimated US$10 million worth of UH-1 Huey helicopters were pushed overboard into the South China Sea. Once the deck was clear Major Buang approached the deck, bounced once and then touched down and taxied to a halt with room to spare. Major Buang became the first RVNAF fixed-wing pilot to ever land on a carrier. A second Cessna O-1 was also recovered by USS Midway that afternoon.^:121

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  Major Buang on final approach

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  Major Buang taxies to a halt

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  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. MSC tugs pulled barges filled with people from Saigon Port out to TF-76. A flotilla of 26 Republic of Vietnam Navy and other vessels concentrated off Long Sơn Island southwest of Vũng Tàu with 30,000 sailors, their families, and other civilians on board. On the afternoon of 30 April, TF-76 moved away from the coast, picking up more refugees as they went. 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.

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 نتائج الإخلاء

انظر أيضاً: Operation New Life, Operation Babylift, and Operation New Arrivals

 في الثقافة الشعبية

Rooftop of 22 Gia Long Street in 2002

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. The building in the photo was the Pittman Apartment building at 22 Gia Long Street (now 22 Lý Tự Trọng Street), which was used as a residence by various embassy, CIA, and USAID employees. It has often been misidentified as the US Embassy. Hubert van Es' photo is frequently used in political cartoons commenting on US foreign policy.

 انظر أيضاً

• Operation Eagle Pull
• Operation Eastern Exit
• Operation New Life

 الهامش

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Marine Corps.

 للاستزادة

• Engelmann, Larry. Tears before the Rain: An Oral History of the Fall of South Vietnam. Oxford University Press, USA, 1990. ISBN 978-0-19-505386-9
• Rhodes, J. E. (1979). The evacuation of Saigon: "Operation Frequent Wind". Marine Corps Command and Staff College. OCLC 14276659.
• Todd, Olivier. Cruel April: The Fall of Saigon. W.W. Norton & Company, 1990. ISBN 978-0-393-02787-7

 وصلات خارجية

 مجموعات أرشيف

• Guide to the Khanh Van Thi Nguyen Narrative on Operation Frequent Wind. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.

 غيرهم

• Last Days in Vietnam on Youtube
• BBC News footage of the Fall of Saigon
• ITN News footage of the Fall of Saigon at YouTube.
• Saigon Facilities Map 1969
• Scenes from Operation Frequent Wind at YouTube.
• 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