29 April 1975..Operation Frequent Wind

Equation said:

How the heck was he able to land a Cessna on a carrier without arrested cable and hook?

Click to expand...

Quite easily. Light aircraft like the one shown are already in military terms, STOL (Short Take Off and Landing) aircraft and the deck of a carrier is a lot longer than they would require for a runway on land. Back in the 1960s British Army Air Corp light observation aircraft regularly operated from the decks of the Commando Carriers (LPH) Albion and Bulwark which lost their catapults and arrestor wires when converted:

Yup. The whole reason for the wires and gear on a carrier deck is the heavier weights of armed aircraft higher speed military fighters. This lead to the cats and traps. The jet age made these issues even worse due to there higher mass and speed demanding two additions to the carrier the angled deck and the meatball.
Fighters in the second world war used cats mostly to open up deck space to launch of more aircraft same for traps to allow more space ahead to allow for aircraft to take off and land at the same time. But as oriven in the launch of the Doolittle raid a fairly large twin engine aircraft can take off the deck of a Yorktown class carrier. And later a C130 conducted multiple units assisted take offs and landing on the USS Foristal.
Midway though not as large as a Foristal class the first of the super carriers, is larger than the Essex or Yorktown class and with an angled deck she has a substantial landing way for a slow and light weight single engine puddle jumper. Heck the pilot could probably have even taken off again without the cat.

Light aircraft like the aforementioned Cessna can take off from a carrier in less distance than the length of the catapult track, assuming the ship is steaming into wind! Cats and traps are for heavy and fast aircraft; light and slow can do it without much help. 1950s ASW aircraft like the Tracker and the Gannet could still perform free takeoffs and would do so if the deck wasn't too crowded. The Brazilian carrier Minas Gerais only operated Tackers and helos, the former frequently used free takeoffs as late as the 90s when her catapult became non operational for a few years.

Yeah but this guy did it without practice ever landing his Cessna onto a carrier. So that meant he had to get it right the first time or else he swimming with the fishes.

No not really, as Obi Wan stated these military Cessnas are STOL birds. There slow speed and light weight means that they can land on very short feilds. His approach speeds would have been very slow is weight is low so he doesn't have the same momentum as a F4 fighter.
So his landing is far far easier he lowers his speed to just the edge of a stall and touches down on the deck and he's basically down. When I was a kid my grandfather who was a Local Shariff deputy used to take me to the office at the local airport, not a big regional or hub but a little short feild where birds like these took off all the time they use a little grass feild point into the wind throtal up and take off in a few yards. Landing was a quick tap on the ground and a very short roll most of it being just taxi roll.

I launched off the JFK in October 1972 in a C-1 Trader COD. We deck launched from the angle deck. No catapult.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Operation Frequent Wind. This is a re-post of the first page of this thread.. edited for accuracy.

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..50 years ago. I was stationed onboard the USS Hancock CVA-19. An old WWll Essex class CV.

This is what occurred 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...

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..and all those helos.

When people see videos of the operation or read about it they always comment on pushing helps over the side.. That was on the USS Hancock CVA-19 and the USS Midway CVA-41 & USS Okinawa(LPH-3). 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. We did not have the time. We simply pushed 19 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.



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} 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