APRIL 24, 2025 – More than 20 years after the first U.S. advisors arrived in South Vietnam and nearly three years after the last U.S. combat troops withdrew from the country, the remaining U.S. personnel and at-risk locals were evacuated from the embassy and various other locations in Saigon, April 29 and 30, 1975, during Operation Frequent Wind.
With 1,373 Americans and 5,595 Vietnamese and third-country nationals flown out of the city, it would be the largest helicopter evacuation in history.
On the morning of the operation, American Forces Radio began transmitting Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” along with a weather report forecasting a high of 105 degrees Fahrenheit for the day. Those two bits of information were code alerts for Americans and their allies to begin moving to their evacuation points for extraction.
Mass evacuations started prior to Operation Frequent Wind in March 1975, using fixed-wing aircraft flying out of Tan Son Nhut Air Base. Over 50,000 people were flown out using this method until April 28, 1975, when artillery fire from an enemy attack aircraft was directed at the airport, making it unsafe to use.
On April 29 and 30, 1975, a fleet of U.S. ships was deployed to the South China Sea off the coastal city of Vung Tau, Vietnam, near Saigon. These ships included four aircraft carriers, various amphibious vessels, a guided missile frigate, eight destroyers, a cruiser and a small group of Military Sealift Command ships.
Various attack jets provided close air support, and Marine Corps, Air Force and South Vietnamese helicopters airlifted evacuees to the assembled vessels.
So many helicopters clogged the vessels that some were pushed overboard or purposely ditched at sea to allow others to land.
At 7:53 a.m. on April 30, 1975, a Marine Corps CH-46E Sea Knight helicopter evacuated the last Marine security guards from the roof of the U.S. Embassy. Master Sgt. Juan Valdez was the last Marine to board. Valdez served a long previous tour of duty in Vietnam from 1965 to 1967.
Not every local national who wanted to evacuate made it out due to their sheer number and the limited evacuation window. Many left on small boats and were picked up by Navy vessels in the coming weeks and months. The total number of people who evacuated and entered the United States was nearly 140,000.
Forty-nine Americans chose to stay or were left behind.
Many military aircraft from Australia, Indonesia, Iran, Poland, the United Kingdom, France and other countries also flew in to evacuate their embassy personnel.
During the operation, President Gerald Ford’s press secretary, Ron Nessen, briefed reporters about the fall of Saigon.
“The first thing I said at the briefing was, ‘All the Americans are out of Saigon. The evacuation is complete,'” Nessen recalled.
When it was learned that 135 Marines were still in Saigon, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was furious with him and ordered Nessen to revise his statement.
Many in the intelligence community, including CIA director William Colby, knew the South Vietnamese government would collapse. However, according to a declassified document: “Minutes of the National Security Council Meeting,” held April 9, 1975, in the White House, they underestimated the speed of the North Vietnamese advance and how quickly the Army of the Republic of Vietnam would collapse.
Some parallels can be made with the rapid advance of the Taliban and the unexpected collapse of Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 15, 2021, in which many people who were eligible to be evacuated were left behind.
Although Operation Frequent Wind was considered a success, given the relatively low loss of U.S. service member’s lives, the images of the evacuation symbolized the futility of U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
One of the evacuees, 9-year-old Viet Luong, recalled praying to the Virgin Mary to save his family in Saigon as the North Vietnamese closed in.
Luong, his parents and seven sisters were rescued by Marines in a CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter and flown to the aircraft carrier USS Hancock.
After they landed on the carrier, Luong asked his father, “What does this mean?”
His father replied, “It means nothing in the world can harm you now.” The next day, Saigon fell, and South Vietnam was no more.
Luong later joined the U.S. Army, fought in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and rose to the rank of major general.
“We sometimes lose perspective of what a great country we live in,” Luong said. “It’s pretty important to remind our second generations that while you continue to work hard and contribute to our new country, take the time to reflect on the fact that we live in the greatest country in the world.”
More than 58,000 names are engraved on the polished black granite wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.
The last service members killed in that war were Marine Corps Cpl. Charles McMahon Jr. and Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Darwin Judge, both security guards at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. They died in a rocket attack at Tan Son Nhut Air Base April 29, 1975, the day before the city fell to the communist-led People’s Army of Vietnam.
That same day, Marine Corps Capt. Craig Nystul and Marine Corps 1st Lt. Michael J. Shea died when their CH-46F Sea Knight helicopter crashed into the South China Sea while attempting to land on the aircraft carrier USS Hancock.
By David Vergun, DOD News