Operation Frequent Wind

Introduction

Operation Frequent Wind was the largest helicopter evacuation in history. It was a continuous operation from 1400 hours on April 29, 1975 lasting through the night and morning of April 30, 1975 until about 0800 hours. Approximately 7,000 people were rescued and the operation was an overwhelming success (Summers 1995). Operation Frequent Wind was the last mission conducted before the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese.

History

The Vietnam War was from 1959 to 1975. Is was also known as American War in Vietnam, Vietnam Conflict, Second Indochina War, War Against the Americans to Save the Nation (Rosenberg n.d.). Operation Frequent Wind was conducted at the end of the war in 1975.

Once the decision was made to leave Saigon, South Vietnam evacuation plans were put into place. All embassies have evacuation plans in place. The evacuation plan for Saigon had four phases. Phase one involved commercial airlift, phase two involved military airlift, phase three involved sea lift, and phase four involved helicopter lift to Navy ships (Tobin 1978). Evacuations took place days prior with the fixed wing assets.

Fixed wing evacuations were conducted from April 1st 1975 to April 29th 1975. Between the C-130 and C-141 airframes, 376 flights took place to evacuate over 45,000 people from Saigon (Hualman 1975). The Air Force also employed their helicopters and several other fixed wing in support of Operation Frequent Wind.

However, on April 28, Tan Son Nhut Air Base was attacked destroying several aircraft and damaging the airfield (Tobin 1978). Attempts were made to continue fixed wing operations. About 1400 hours on April 29, 1975 helicopters from the United States Air Force, United States Navy, United States Marines, Air ...

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...th Vietnamese crashed into the American Embassy gates; thus the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War (Dunham 1973–1975 ).

Evacuees aboard the United States Navy ships went to the reception centers set up in the Philippines and Guam (Hualman 1975). 19 hours and 81 helicopters were employed to execute Operation Frequent Wind (History.com n.d.). The event has gone down in history was the largest helicopter evacuation ever.

Lessons Learned

Fragmented command and control seems to always be an issue with military operations. Operation Frequent Wind was no different. A single military commander should have been established instead of the civilian Embassy Ambassador (Hualman 1975). Only four American military were killed during the Operation; Marine corporals McMahon and Judge while at the Defense Attaché Office and pilots Nystul and Shea (Dunham 1973–1975 ).