29 April 1975..Operation Frequent Wind

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
Re: 29 April 1975..Operation Frequent Wind

May I correct you sir, it is 37. I can remember this exactly because it is how old I am.

Yes I know..I copied and pasted that post from a couple of years ago at mp.net..Thanks..I'll fix that!
 

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
From the first page of this thread...

Operation Frequent Wind was the evacuation of Americans, Vietnamese and third country nationals by helicopter from South Vietnam on 29 April 1975.

1,373 U.S. citizens and 5,595 Vietnamese and third country nationals were evacuated by USMC, USAF and Air America helicopters to U.S. Navy ships off-shore in an approximately 24-hour period on April 29-30, 1975, immediately preceding the fall of Saigon.

I, Big Daddy Popeye was there..31 years ago. I was stationed onboard the USS Hancock CVA-19. An old WWll Essex class CV.

This is what occuried on the flight deck of the USS Hancock CVA-19 during Operation Frequent Wind. I was assigned to "G" Division flight deck crew. "G" division is comprised of Aviation Ordanceman. We handle Aviation ammo. This story is written as best as I can remember...

29 April 1975 of that day my friend one Mr Jimmy Bishop said..""Was that ever one of the sadist days of my life.. Remember seeing{on Tv}
them shove UH-1B's over the side of one of the carriers because they
were running out of room to operate.I was having a cold brewski at
this little Irish Pub named McGoo's...seems like yesterday""

About 0530 on board the USS Hancock CVA-19 on 29 April 1975 AO2 Harry Depaw awoke me and told me it's time to get to work. Oh joy,oh joy!! Another day of loading .50 cal ammo and waiting. It had been more than 10 days since we left Singapore. All old Hanna was doing was cutting doughnuts in the South China Sea and waiting for Saigon to fall.

Meanwhile in Saigon US Ambassador Martin knew the end was near.The North Vietnamese forces were getting closer to Saigon. It was just a matter of time before he would have to tell Washington to order the evacuation of Saigon. That occurred at 1000 that morning when he called Sec. Of state Henry Kessinger..

Deep Purple !! Deep Purple!! Was called away on the USS Hancock CVA-19 at about 1100. ..Operation Frequent wind was under way! Fightin' Hanna would answer the call one more time.

My job was to load up the USMC helos with .50 cal ammo. Then I was to man the deck edge bomb elevator forward of the island and place evacuee luggage on it after it had been inspected. Well WE all did more than that that day.

The sky was soon filled with USMC helos, some filled with "Grunt" Marines to secure & establish landing zones in designated areas "in country". I will not ever forget the sight of all those ships..48 of 'em...and all those helos.

Jimmy mentioned seeing helo's being pushed overboard. That was on the USS Hancock CVA-19 and the USS Midway CVA-41. We had to push 19 of the Republic of South Vietnam(RVN) helo's overboard. 2 Chinook's and 17 Huey's. They were clogging the deck. Plus they had no landing gear{wheels}. Just skids. When the first RVN Huey's landed they were dragged to the bow and spotted there. As more and more helos arrived it became apparent that we could not keep the RVN helos and recover our own USMC helos. So when a RVN CH-47 Chinook landed with its non-folding blades we pushed it off the fantail. It ripped the safety netting off the round down on the fantail. It made a big splash when it hit the water. That helo's starboard engine was on fire. When that helo was circling ole Hanna' there was a 50 cal machine gun that was manned and ready pointing out of the starboard forward door. Smoke was bellowing out of that starboard engine. Capt. "Field Day" Fred Fellows called the ship to GQ over that.

I once read another internet account that claimed that these helos were salvaged first for parts. This is not true. A complete fabrication. We did not have the time. We simply pushed many of the RVN helos into the Tonkin Gulf. Period. Another account claims a Cessna landed on the Hancock. Not true. The Cessna actually landed on the USS Midway (CVA-41). I know. I was on that flight deck for 29 straight hours. Click the link below for pic of the Evacuation on the Midway.

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But when the nice pretty silver and blue Air America Huey's started coming aboard they were dragged to the bow and spotted there. A lot of those Air America pilots were drunk. It is a wonder that none of their helos crashed. We could not souvenir hunt in those birds like we did the RVN helos that we did keep.

When the RVN officers & families & Civilians etc starting really arriving in droves. Many were ARMED. You name it.. they had it!! A lot of 45's,38's,9mm,22's.. sawed offed Remington shot guns. I saw a so sweet .357 Colt Python with a six in barrel. I saw a lot Of knives. The Jar heads..OOPPSS I mean the Marines were in charge of searching the evacuees. They had this box to put the weapons in. Well you know Marines & sailors. Some marine "Confiscated" that Colt Python. Most of the weapons were thrown overboard.{Sic} I did not get any weapons because I was being stationed in Cubi Pt. And did not want to take a chance on getting busted. Most of the RVN military,civilians and American evacuees had large sum of cash and gold. After the evacuees were searched they were sent down to the Hangar deck were they were deloused and quartered. Some were placed in vacated berthing spaces.

Later that evening after the dust had settled a USMC CH-46 flying plane guard crashed just off the port side of the Hancock. Two crewman were lost. A Memorial service was held for the lost crewman on our way back to Subic.

All in all we wound up with over 2000 evacuees on the Hancock. One child was born to a Vietnamese woman on the Hancock. What was he named? John Hancock...

Big Daddy Popeye USN/retired USS Hancock CVA-19 AUG'74 'til Aug '75
 

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
popeye and myself are gong to re-load the photos that are missing in this now historical thread. It will take some time.

April 29th will mark the 40th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon and Operation Frequent Wind.
 

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
Popeye was aboard USS Hancock (CVA 19) in April 1975. This song by Elton John was heard often on the ships radio station. It was the #1 tune at that time. And for all of 1975. I had not heard the song for a long time then on Saturday we were in a consignment store and "Philadelphia Freedom" by Sir Elton John was blaring on the stores radio...man that tune brought back some serious memories of Fightin Hanna, Operations Eagle Pull and Frequent Wind..

We called her Fightin' Hanna she was the Queen of the sea...damn that was forty years ago...>> 29 April 1975.

 

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
bd popeye is not happy.. he wants to post in this thread but gets this message when attempting to post;

(You have insufficient privileges to reply here.)

What? bd popeye has over 18,000 post at SDF. What gives?

Enywho he's give me instructions to post this video of Operation Frequent Wind aboard USS Midway (CVA 41);


Popeye also served aboard Midway from August 1973 until August 1974.
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Popeye...I do not know.

With the new forum, we are still very limited here in what we can do as moderators.

I think you should contact Webby and let him know.
 

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
I just found this online..

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Decent article.

Forty years ago today Operation Frequent Wind took place....unfortunately much of this fateful day in Vietnam is forgotten or is twisted by those who want to fashion history as they see fit...sad, very sad.

I will never forget. I was there.

Gerry H. USS Hancock (CVA 19) Operation Frequent Wind April 29th & 30th 1975.

Serving with the US Navy ..August 1971 -August 1991....proud to have served.
 
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