Memories from the Vietnam War

I was in Phnom Penh last week. One evening after work I turned on the TV and watched several programs on the Discovery Channel. One was about the very first WWI fighter planes and pilots. Having flown combat in the skies over Cambodia in 1973 just before the end of hostilities in Cambodia this was emotional for me.

Another program was about a cargo plane that crashed while evacuating orphans from Saigon on the fourth of April 1975. In April, 1975 as the war in Vietnam came to a close I was flying cargo planes in the Pacific, including numerous missions supporting the evacuation of military personnel and civilians from Vietnam. We were flying so much, we did not find out about the accident until later. I did not know any of the crew on the plane that crashed, but a year later, stationed in the Philippines, I had friends who had known some of the flight nurses who died in the baby lift crash.

Being in Phnom Penh, so close to combat action, and considering my own involvement in the final evacuation of Saigon, sent shivers up and down my entire body. Memories of flying into Saigon three days before it fell, the sight of planes taking off, bombing so close you could see smoke from the bombs, fighter jets returning, rearming and taking off again came back to me. It had seemed to take hours to load passengers, knowing the fighting was so close to our operation.

The evacuation planes had no seats, everyone sat on the floor. After take-off, we spiraled up to 20,000 feet to minimize the risk of attack from ground-based missiles. We were to take the refugees to the Philippines, but all of the refugee camps there were full, and we diverted to Wake Island.