Minutes of President Gerald Ford's National Security Council meeting on 9 April 1975 when evacuation plans were extensively discussed This operation was also the debut combat deployment of the F-14 Tomcat aircraft. : 258 The total number of Vietnamese evacuated by Frequent Wind or self-evacuated and ending up in the custody of the United States for processing as refugees to enter the United States totalled 138,869. In Operation Frequent Wind a total of 1,373 Americans and 5,595 Vietnamese and third-country nationals were evacuated by helicopter. Pilots of other helicopters were told to drop off their passengers and then take off and ditch in the sea, from where they would be rescued. Helicopters began to clog ship decks and eventually, some were pushed overboard to allow others to land. With the collapse of South Vietnam, numerous boats and ships, Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) helicopters and some fixed-wing aircraft sailed or flew out to the evacuation fleet. Tens of thousands of Vietnamese evacuated themselves by sea or air. The evacuation of the embassy was completed at 07:53 on 30 April, but some Americans chose to stay or were left behind and some 400 third-country nationals were left at the embassy. 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.

The evacuation took place primarily from the Defense Attaché Office compound, beginning around 14:00 on the afternoon of 29 April, and ending that night with only limited small arms damage to the helicopters. During the fixed-wing evacuation 50,493 people (including 2,678 Vietnamese orphans) were evacuated from Tan Son Nhut. The fixed-wing evacuation was terminated and Operation Frequent Wind began. On 28 April, Tan Son Nhut Air Base (next to the airport) came under artillery fire and attack from Vietnamese People's Air Force aircraft. by allowing the mostly-unopposed evacuation of Americans from Saigon. 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. Navy assembled Task Force 76 off the coast near Vũng Tàu to support a helicopter evacuation and provide air support if required.

As the imminent collapse of Saigon became evident, the U.S. By mid-April, contingency plans were in place and preparations were underway for a possible helicopter evacuation. At the beginning of March, fixed-wing aircraft began evacuating civilians from Tan Son Nhat Airport through neighboring countries. The airlift resulted in a number of enduring images.Įvacuation plans already existed as a standard procedure for American embassies. More than 7,000 people were evacuated by helicopter from various points in Saigon. It was carried out on 29–30 April 1975, during the last days of the Vietnam War. Operation Frequent Wind was the final phase in the evacuation of American civilians and 'at-risk' Vietnamese from Saigon, South Vietnam, before the takeover of the city by the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) in the Fall of Saigon.

Escape to blue ridge