by stmw on 1/26/25, 12:40 AM with 179 comments
by genedan on 1/26/25, 4:47 AM
In those final moments, soldiers who knew how to fly took whatever aircraft they could get their hands on, (Chinooks, Hueys, Cessnas, etc.) and flew aimlessly, hoping to run into friendly forces along the way before their fuel ran out.
by sinuhe69 on 1/26/25, 2:10 PM
https://www.facebook.com/NavalInstitute/videos/1638823169892...
by adamtaylor_13 on 1/26/25, 3:20 AM
What’s especially wild is that we actually have footage of this event.
I highly recommend the Naval Aviation Museum if you ever find yourself in Pensacola or nearby!
by dang on 1/26/25, 3:50 AM
A South Vietnamese Air Force Officer and a Crazy Carrier Landing (2015) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17991021 - Sept 2018 (67 comments)
I vaguely recall that there have been other threads about this too. Can anyone find them?
(Reposts are fine after a year or so; links to past threads are just to satisfy extra-curious readers)
by krustyburger on 1/26/25, 1:55 AM
by gedy on 1/26/25, 1:47 AM
Many went through tough times after the war was over and left years later.
by bhasi on 1/26/25, 7:26 AM
by Aken on 1/26/25, 2:18 AM
My in-laws are immigrants from Vietnam who left during the war. These stories feel a little closer to home than they would have before meeting them.
by dylan604 on 1/26/25, 1:59 AM
by akdor1154 on 1/26/25, 3:34 AM
I strongly recommend anyone who travels to Ha Noi to visit Hoa Lo prison - it's an excellent exhibition that shows the horror of both colonialism and war, and i think is made in a genuine good faith effort to promote peace into the future.
by larusso on 1/26/25, 2:49 PM
Other than that. What an amazing story. I love the part that the captain didn’t care if he would not only loose his job but also get court marshaled for loss of material.
by Simon_O_Rourke on 1/26/25, 7:52 AM
by eszed on 1/28/25, 10:57 PM
I'm a relatively new dad, so an increasingly large number of my brain cycles are involuntarily committed to worst-case-scenario planning. Like, my kid choked for something like four seconds, and I tipped him over and banged on his back and he was fine, but I'd already mentally moved into the rest of the checklist: start a timer; call 911; Heimlich, Heimlich, Heimlich; send my wife for peroxide, a razor blade, and a straw; Heimlich, Heimlich. At 3.5 minutes, I'm making the cut. Like I say, the kid was fine, but I was a bit of a wreck for a little while.
There's one of those videos above (go watch 'em) where they're getting off the plane, and someone reaches out and pats the guy's shoulder, and his face is just numb. Like, it worked, and we're safe, and I don't believe it yet, and I'm glad they showed that shoulder pat, because I wanted to reach through the screen, and back through time, and do the same damn thing, tell him: "it worked; they're safe; welcome home."
by canthack2good on 1/26/25, 4:41 PM
Me: You know this guy? Or have you heard of him? Dad: I have not. This is the 1st I ve heard of it The evacuation of Vietnam was a 100 times worse, horrific, etc. Than Afghanistan That pilot was very lucky...landing a light fixed wing on an aircraft carrier is impossible The swells of the sea, etc. Will bat that plane like a bug
Live or die.....hundreds of thousands friendly Vietnamese died when we left them unprotected
Me: frowny face
Dad: It was despicable
Much, much worse than Afghanistan.... the North Vietnamese slaughtered most all those that worked with US. The rest spent long terms in jails
by duxup on 1/26/25, 2:15 AM
That would make a great short film.
by Invictus0 on 1/26/25, 2:30 AM
by whyenot on 1/26/25, 4:25 AM
This says more about me than any flaws with article.
by hermitcrab on 1/26/25, 8:10 PM
by frozenport on 1/26/25, 1:49 AM
They read these stories of escape as emblematic of the southern government’s cowardice rather than heroism. In some ways these are stories of active military deserting their posts.
It was no surprise to these North Vietnamese patriots that they triumphed.
by johnea on 1/27/25, 12:51 AM
by myflash13 on 1/26/25, 7:18 AM
by dredmorbius on 1/26/25, 7:08 PM
I’d like to point out that a lot of our young men are currently attempting to do the exact same thing as was described above for the Afghani translators who served with the US Army even at tremendous risk to their lives. They have sponsored them for visas since their lives, and those of their families, are increasingly at risk back in Afghanistan because of their work with the US. Many of these Afghani and Iraqi translators saved US American soldier lives, and made it possible for the our soldiers to work with the local populations when this was critical.
Unfortunately, even as American soldiers are working hard to bring their translators they worked with, along with their families, to the US, they’re running into a lot of red tape back in the US, even though we’ve only filled a fraction of the visas that Congress allotted for Iraqis and Afghans who served with the US Army and other branches.
<https://tacairnet.com/2015/08/20/a-south-vietnamese-air-forc...>
That was called out in an HN comment: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17992951>
I'd like to point out that following events of the 20th of this month, that red tape has turned into a solid wall as the US has frozen all asylum and refugee actions, including those of people already cleared to enter the US, many with flights already booked for entry.
This includes "more than 1,600 Afghans cleared to come to the U.S. as part of the program that the Biden administration set up after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021". That group specifically includes those who assisted the US during its campaigns in Afghanistan:
Many veterans of America’s longest war have tried for years to help Afghans they worked with, in addition to their families, find refuge in the U.S. Many were prepared for a suspension of the resettlement program but had hoped for special consideration for the Afghans.
<https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-administration-c...>
The long-lasting harm this does to US goodwill, reputation, and the willingness of those abroad to help and assist the US in future remains to be seen, but will likely be severe.
by casenmgreen on 1/26/25, 8:24 PM
https://history.army.mil/Publications/Publications-Catalog-S...
In particular;
"ADVICE AND SUPPORT: THE EARLY YEARS"
https://history.army.mil/Publications/Publications-Catalog-S...
This is first book in a series of three, where the first and third have been published, the second is in fact going to be two volumes, of which the second volume is about to be published and the first is not yet out.
The book IMO is superb.
The history of it is very simple : the French rules Vietnam, extraordinarily badly, the locals wanted independence - that's all they wanted. An end to violence, exploitation and corruption. WW2 happened, the Japanese moved in, then out, the locals declared independence, the French came back, and they wanted to keep Vietnam. The French shanghaied the Americans into helping them militarily ("they're all communists!!!") and the Americans were naive/gullible and bought into it. The French eventually left, leaving the Americans carrying the can and with so much investment of time and prestige they couldn't just leave.
In all of this, the locals suffered in the most appalling and horrific ways, and ended up stuck with Communism (which none of them had any particular interest in, and which they later turned to because they needed support and that was all that was available).
Basically far as I can see it all kicked off with French colonialism. The locals simply wanted independence. The irony is the USA - the bastion of independence and freedom - ended up fighting against this and slaughtering huge numbers of people who simply wanted to run their own affairs.
USA is a good country, as countries go, but it has made mistakes, and when countries go to war, the practical consequences of the mistakes can well be enormous.
(I can compare this to say Putin's Russia, which is an appalling country and will kill you and your family if you get in their way and using violence and torture to keep people in line.)
by bn-l on 1/26/25, 2:25 AM