E.O. [6]: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. The medal shall be ,awarded only for operations for which no other U.S. campaign medal is A third wave of two CH-53s from HMH-463 and eight USAF CH-53Cs and two USAF HH-53s of the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron (all operating from USS Midway) arrived shortly afterwards. [4], Although American officials at the highest levels of the intelligence community (e.g., CIA Director William Colby) were certain that the South Vietnamese government would collapse, everyone in the U.S. government underestimated the speed of the North Vietnamese advance during the 1975 Spring Offensive and how quickly the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) would collapse. An award will not be made to a unit for actions of one or more of its component parts, unless such unit performed as a total team in a manner justifying the award. There was an insert page which read: "Note evacuational signal. Squadrons or units embarked in a ship, (c). Normal performance of duty or in a large number of combat missions does not in itself justify the award. The weather conditions deteriorated as the operation continued. [6]:27 By 16 April, Alamo was complete: water, C-rations, petroleum, oil, and lubricants had been stockpiled; backup electricity generators had been installed; sanitary facilities were completed; and concertina wire protected the perimeter. The Marine evacuation contingent, the 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade (Task Group 79.1), consisted of three Battalion Landing Teams (BLT); 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines (2/4), 1st Battalion 9th Marines (1/9), 3rd Battalion 9th Marines (3/9) and three helicopter squadrons HMH-462, HMH-463, HMM-165 along with other support units from Marine Aircraft Group 39 (MAG-39). operational control in the area involved. Awarded to members of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard in the grade of captain/colonel and junior thereto, who have actively participated in ground or surface combat. Send the form to: Bureau of Naval Personnel Liaison Office Room 5409, 9700 Page Avenue St. Louis, MO 63132-5100 To obtain information about unit awards earned, contact the Chief of Naval Operations, Awards and Special Projects Branch at the address below. [23], Sea Stallions returning from the DAO Compound approach USS Midway, RVNAF Hueys and a CH-47 Chinook arrive at USS Midway, RVNAF Huey full with evacuees on the deck of USS Midway. To avert mid-air collisions, the planners chose altitudes which would provide separation of traffic and also a capability to see and avoid the enemy's AAA, SA-2 and SA-7 missile threat (6,500 feet (2,000m) for flights inbound to Saigon and 5,500 feet (1,700m) for those outbound from Saigon to the Navy ships). serving, for one or more days, with an organization approved. This office can identify awards earned by Navy units. 1st Anti-Tank Bn, 1st Mar Div, 27Mar66 to 20Sep69, 3rd Anti-Tank Bn, 3rd Mar Div, 12Jul65 to 20Sep69, For the Period of 08 February 1962 to 28 March 1973, Headquarters, US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam AND SUBORDINATE COMMANDS IN DIRECT SUPPORT are eligible to participate in the award only during the period actually served ashore in the Republic of Vietnam, Republic of Vietnam Meritorious Unit Commendation, Civil Action, 1st Class with Palm and Frame. Operations. XII. c. Engagement Stars. [6]:66, On 27 April, PAVN rockets hit Saigon and Cholon for the first time since the 1973 ceasefire. It's a laundry ship". Hancock was lovingly called Hanna and Fightin' Hanna by the crew. [6]:80, At dawn the RVNAF began to haphazardly depart Tan Son Nhut Air Base as A-37s, F-5s, C-7s, C-119s and C-130s departed for Thailand while UH-1s took off in search of the ships of TF-76. [39], The second act of the stage musical Miss Saigon depicts events leading up to, and during Operation Frequent Wind, with the main protagonists (Chris and Kim) becoming separated as a result of the evacuation. The stem of the palm is to the wearer's right." . [35], 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. [3]:86, The two major evacuation points chosen for Operation Frequent Wind were the DAO Compound next to Tan Son Nhut Airport for American and Vietnamese civilian evacuees, and the U.S. Embassy, Saigon for embassy staff. Awarded to all personnel assigned or attached to the following units, during the period shown, are authorized to wear the ribbon bar, Gallantry Medal Color, with Palm and Gold Frame. and eight destroyer types for naval gunfire, escort, and area defense, including: The USSEnterprise and USSCoral Sea carrier attack groups of Task Force 77 in the South China Sea provided air cover while Task Force 73 ensured logistic support. [6]:72 At 21:00 on 28 April Major General Homer D. Smith, the Defense Attach, informed the evacuation control center that 60 C-130 flights would come in on 29 April to evacuate 10,000 people. 1 Considering the dates prescribed in the legislation, the following combat periods, which were approved under prior direction, are approved to consider awarding of the CAR: World War II 07 December 1941 through 14 April 1946, Korean War 27 June 1950 through 27 July 1954. On the ground floor a water tanker was driven through the chancery door and the crowd began to surge up through the building toward the rooftop. [10]:183 At 08:00 Lieutenant General Minh, commander of the RVNAF and 30 of his staff arrived at the DAO compound demanding evacuation, signifying the complete loss of RVNAF command and control. Homer asks the helicopter pilot if they are being taken to an aircraft carrier and is told that "the closest vessel is the USS Walter Mondale. The SeaCobras could also serve as Forward Air Controllers. military operations. After receiving permission from the airborne commander, the Wild Weasel marked the three 57-mm sites with an AGM-45 Shrike missile and took evasive action to escape the tracers coming in. [6]:24 On 4 April, a C-5A aircraft carrying 250 Vietnamese orphans and their escorts suffered explosive decompression over the sea near Vng Tu and made a crash-landing while attempting to return to Tan Son Nhut; 153 people on board died in the crash. a. Vietnam Counter-offensive 25 Dec 65 to 30 Jun 66 But these restrictions were relaxed and eventually ignored altogether as the pace of the evacuation quickened. service. Once completed, the new defensive perimeter encompassed only LZ 36 and the Alamo. Martin had remained optimistic that a negotiated settlement could be reached whereby the US would not have to pull out of South Vietnam and, in an effort to avert defeatism and panic he instructed Major James Kean, commanding officer of the Marine Security Guard Battalion and Ground Support Force Commander United States Embassy Compound, that he could not begin to remove the tamarind tree and other trees and shrubbery which prevented the use of the embassy parking lot as a helicopter landing zone. X. Tet 69 Counter-offensive 23 Feb 69 to 08 Jun 69 (e). during the period for which that ship is listed as eligible, are Vietnam Counter-offensive I1 01 Jul 66 to 31 May 67 eligible for the award. IV. application, any such member may elect the Vietnam Service Medal (VSM) in lieu of the supporting military operations. [30], For an operation of the size and complexity of Frequent Wind, casualties were relatively light. The USN formed a 48 ship task force to evacuate Americans and other from these countries. (4) Limitations. Only personnel attached to Campaign Stars are authorized for Ain-country personnel@ for periods as indicated below: 16605 Forest Green Terrace [10]:186, "Alpha" command group, two rifle companies, and the 81mm mortar platoon were deployed around the DAO headquarters building (the Alamo) and its adjacent landing zones. At this time, the embassy indicated that another 19 lifts would complete the evacuation. Members of rear Commander Task Force 76 received the order to execute Operation Frequent Wind (initially Talon Vise), the evacuation of U.S. personnel and Vietnamese who might suffer as a result of their past service to the Allied effort. As this was happening, a firefight between two ARVN units broke out and caught the rearmost buses in the crossfire, disabling two of the vehicles. 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. [20]:29. When Lady Ace 09 transmitted "Tiger is out", those helicopter crews still flying thought the mission was complete, and delayed evacuating the Marines from the embassy rooftop. In Operation Frequent Wind a total of 1,373 Americans and 5,595 Vietnamese and third-country nationals were evacuated by helicopter. In addition, a flotilla of Military Sealift Command (MSC) ships were assembled and these carried out seaborne evacuations from Saigon Port, this fleet comprised: On 28 April at 18:06, three A-37 Dragonflies piloted by former RVNAF pilots, who had defected to the Vietnamese People's Air Force at the fall of Da Nang, dropped six Mk81 250lb bombs on Tan Son Nhut Air Base destroying several aircraft. The performance of duty in carrying out a mission under the ordinary hazards of war, or participation in extended periods of combat duty, or in a large number of combat missions does not itself justify the award, which is designated to recognize specific acts of heroism on the part of the unit acting as a team. 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. Official U.S. Marine Corps photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Hancock would be involved in both operations. [20]:2829 With its available fleet of only 20 Hueys (3 of which were impounded, ditched or damaged at TF76), Air America had moved over 1,000 evacuees to the DAO Compound, the Embassy or out to the ships of TF76. A total of 1,373 Americans and over 5,600 South Vietnamese nationals were . [14]:567 A Marine AH-1J SeaCobra ran out of fuel while searching for USS Okinawa and ditched at sea, the two crew members were rescued by a boat from USS Kirk. stipulates that personnel who were awarded the Armed Forces Expeditioanry Medal (AFEM) for their [10]:197 With the evacuation of the landing control teams from the Annex and Alamo completed, General Carey ordered the withdrawal of the ground security forces from the DAO Compound around 22:50. Thanks to my daughter for never giving up. It is so sad that so many of use never received what was due us.. Companies E and F respectively occupied the northern and southern sections between the DAO headquarters and the DAO Annex. The history and Technology of Submarines (Grade 5), To the Ends of the Earth and Beyond (Grades 5-8), The Date that Lives in Infamy: Pearl Harbor (High School), Codes and Signals: Breaking the Spy Games of World War II and Vietnam, Damage Control Mission Brief: (Blue Navy) A Study Based on the Battle of Okinawa, Damage Control Mission Brief: (Green Navy) A Study Based on the Battle of Okinawa, Author Talk: The Suffragist Playbook: Your Guide to Changing the World with Rebecca Boggs Roberts and Lucinda Robb, Family Art Workshop: Kites and Observation, Talk: The Washington Navy Yard During the Civil War, A Conversation with Historians Dr. Regina Akers and Dr. Eddie Valentin: From Benjamin Drummond to Doris Miller: Race, Identity, and the Struggle Against Discrimination in the U.S. Navy, Virtual Book Talk: When Giants Ruled the Sky: the Brief Reign and Tragic Demise of the American Rigid Airship, with John J. Geoghegan and Curator, Gordon Calhoun, April 29, 1975 Operation Frequent Wind, April 18, 1906 -- San Francisco, California, December 16, 1922 Rescue of Vinh-Long Passengers, September 6, 1930 Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, December 1948-January 1949-Beirut, Lebanon and Port Said, Egypt, 1954-1955 Vietnam (Operation Passage to Freedom), October 13, 1954 -- Haiti (Hurricane Hazel), February 7, 1955: Evacuation of Chinese from Tachen Islands, October 1955: Tampico, Mexico (Hurricane Janet), October 1959 Nagoya, Japan (Typhoon Vera), November 3, 1961 - Belize, British Honduras (Hurricane Hattie), August 1969 Mississippi (Hurricane Camille), October-December 1973 Colombia and Haiti, February 1975 Mauritius (Cyclone Gervaise), 1980-1989 Rescue of Vietnamese Refugees, September 21, 1981 Rescue of Datu Kalantiaw, January 28, 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger, April-August 1989 - Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, September-October 1989 Charleston, South Carolina, January 1990 Dubai, United Arab Emirates, August 5, 1990 Liberia (Operation Sharp Edge), 1991-1996 - Iraq (Operation Provide Comfort), 1992-1993 Somalia (Operation Restore Hope), 1992-1996 Yugoslavia (Operation Provide Promise), March 1997 - Albania (Operation Silver Wake), January-March 1998 Kenya (Operation Nobel Response). [20]:2425 A stolen Air America Bell 204 landed on Kirk, from where US Navy pilots flew it to Okinawa. Subsequent awards will be indicated by the use of a Gold Star on the ribbon: (1). participating in or directly supporting military operations. No person may be issued both the Vietnam Service Medal (VSM) and the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (AFEM) for [6] Originally codenamed "Talon Vise", the operation was renamed "Frequent Wind" when the original codename was compromised. [22] CH-46s evacuated the Battalion Landing Team by 07:00 and after an anxious wait a lone CH-46 Swift 2-2 of HMM-164[10]:200 arrived to evacuate Major Kean and the ten remaining men of the Marine Security Guards, this last helicopter took off at 07:53 on 30 April and landed on USS Okinawa at 08:30. The Operations were called "Eagle Pull" and "Frequent Wind". (Authorization of the CAR must be approved either by the USMC or USN AwardsBranches. (d) Public Law 107-314 of 2 December 2002 stipulates that personnel who were awarded the Armed Forces Expeditioanry Medal (AFEM) for their participation in Operation FREQUENT WIND, during the period 29 to 30 April 1975, may elect the Vietnam Service Medal (VSM) in lieu of the Armed Forces Expeditioanry Medal (AFEM) for such service. period for which that ship is eligible. A. [6]:103 At 00:30 on 30 April, thermite grenades, having been previously placed in selected buildings, ignited as two CH-53s left the DAO parking lot carrying the last elements of BLT 2/4. Some 400 evacuees were left behind at the embassy including over 100 South Korean citizens; among them was Brigadier General Dai Yong Rhee, the intelligence chief at the South Korean Embassy in Saigon. Date. Air America helicopters continued to make rooftop pickups until after nightfall by which time navigation became increasingly difficult. Note: A Bronze Star, 3/16 inch in diameter, is authorized to be worn on the suspension ribbon and ribbon bar of the Vietnam Service Medal (VSM) for each of the following campaigns. [25][26] The South Korean civilians were evacuated in 1976, while General Rhee and two other diplomats were held captive until April 1980. (a). This helicopter was one of 15 which landed on board USS Blue Ridge with Vietnamese military personnel and families during the evacuation. The service medal was awarded to all members of the armed forces who served in Vietnam and contiguous waters and airspace between 01 July 1958 and 28 March 1973. 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. service in Vietnam, and no person shall be entitled to more than Expeditionary Medal (AFEM) for Vietnam. The crew evacuated the burning aircraft on the taxiway and departed the airfield on another C-130 that had previously landed. Vietnam Counter-offensive VI 02 Nov 68 to 22 Feb 69 In addition, two CH-46s would provide medical evacuation capabilities while AH-1J SeaCobras would fly cover for the transport helicopters and for any ground units who requested support. At 15:00 the first CH-53s were sighted heading towards the DAO Compound at Tan Son Nhut. Ships and units [6]:67 Also on 25 April the Federal Aviation Administration banned commercial flights into South Vietnam. DIVE! [10]:191192, The HMH-462 CH-53s loaded with evacuees and left the compound, they unloaded the first evacuees delivered by Operation Frequent Wind at 15:40. In April 1975, Okinawa participated in Operation Eagle Pull, the evacuation of Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of Saigon, Vietnam. [41][42], The operation was the subject of the 2014 PBS documentary Last Days in Vietnam.[43]. [6]:22 Also on 1 April, Plan Alamo was implemented to defend the DAO compound and its annex so it could serve as a holding area for 1,500 evacuees for five days. In addition, Air America helicopters and RVNAF aircraft brought additional evacuees to the TF76 ships. [6]:62 President Thiu and his family left Tan Son Nhut on 25 April on a USAF C-118 to go into exile in Taiwan. Guide to the Khanh Van Thi Nguyen Narrative on Operation Frequent Wind. serving, for one or more days, aboard a naval vessel directly All planning would have to be conducted with the utmost discretion. V. Vietnam Counter-offensive I11 01 Jun 67 to 29 Jan 68 Thus, this operation ended the U.s. Navy's role in the 25-year Amerian effort to aid the Republic of Vietnam in its desperate fight for survival. At 10:00 Ambassador Martin confirmed General Smith's assessment and at 10:48 he contacted Washington to recommend Option 4, the helicopter evacuation. Evacuation plans already existed as a standard procedure for American embassies. instances where the local commander certifies a particular and to 30 April 1975, may elect the Vietnam Service Medal (VSM) in lieu of the Armed Forces Expeditioanry Medal (AFEM) for such XVII . 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. [6]:44 Finally, on 19 April, a simple procedure was implemented that cleared up the paperwork jam and the number of evacuees dramatically increased. the Vietnam Service Medal (VSM) for each of the following campaigns: I. Vietnam Advisory Campaign 15 Mar 62 to 07 Mar 65 Many of the Vietnamese evacuees were allowed to enter the United States under the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act. A C-130 Airborne Command and Control controlled all US air operations over land. New National Museum of the U.S. Navy-October 2020, New National Museum of the U.S. Navy - October 2022, Exhibits: New National Museum of the U.S. Navy, Exhibits: New National Museum of the U.S. Navy - Main, The American Revolution and the French Alliance, The Forgotten Wars of the Nineteenth Century, Civil War: Securing the Seas for Union Victory, Education Resources (Lesson Plans and Class Activities), Education Resources (Lesson Plans and Class Activities) - Main, Sailor's Life at Sea & Poetry (Grades 4-6), DIVE! The wearer & # x27 ; s right. & quot ; Eagle Pull & quot ; Eagle &..., PAVN rockets hit Saigon and Cholon for the first time since the 1973 ceasefire Marine photograph... Any such member may elect the Vietnam Service Medal ( AFEM ) for Vietnam CAR be! Third-Country nationals were evacuated by helicopter on Operation Frequent Wind a total of 1,373 Americans and 5,595 and... 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