Were we right to go over there? I don’t know. You have to understand, it was not unlike our Civil War. Have your feelings toward the other side changed over the past four decades?Ĭaron: Oh yeah. Even the haters did not pay much attention to us. They heard rumors that we were weak – just skin and bones. It was a bit quiet everything was in order. On the way, we crossed the Police Department. If there was any doubt, you went to a re-education camp.Ĭan: A day after the liberation, we were ordered to join the force protecting the Independence Palace. Then the communists took over, and they ran everything. Jubilant communist troops make their way to the center of Saigon as the city fell under their control, April 30, 1975. After such a long period of war, it was like an explosion of feelings. There was no more risk of getting killed. Got a few hundred people out, when we could’ve got thousands.Ĭan: When I raised the flag, I was fully aware that, “this is the moment.” We were so happy.
What was the feeling on the ground when the fighting ended?Ĭaron: A lot of anger. The second is the moment I climbed the water tank to raise the flag at Davis Camp at 9:30, April 30, 1975. I told them, “We got used to this,” and I laughed. They were lying on the floor of the car, extremely fearful for their lives. Sergeant Major Nguyen Van Can (below) and his comrade raise the liberation flag on top of the water tower at Tan Son Nhat airport.
The first is the visit of President Duong Van Minh to Davis Camp on the afternoon of April 29. We ended up carrying up to 20 people per ride.Ĭan: There are two moments that will stay in my mind forever. I had seatbelts for seven or eight people.
We kept ferrying people back to Tan Son Nhut Airbase, so they could get on the bigger helicopters and get out to the ships at sea. As we approached, I said that the Deputy Prime Minister sure had a huge family, because there were 50 people standing on that ladder. We took off, he directed me to where that rooftop was. He told me we were to pick up the Deputy Prime Minister and his family. When I went to the embassy, that’s when CIA officer Oren “O.B.” Harnage jumped up and said, “I got something I need you to do.” I found a chopper, jumped in, and started going out to the rooftops. A powerful CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter departs the USS Hancock to evacuate Saigon in April, 1975.
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