Operation Frequent Wind - Air America

Air America

As part of the evacuation plan agreed with the DAO, Air America committed 24 of its 28 available helicopters to support the evacuation and 31 pilots agreed to stay in Saigon to support the evacuation; this meant that each helicopter would have only 1 pilot. At 08:30 on 29 April, with the shelling of Tan Son Nhut Airport subsiding, Air America began ferrying its helicopter and fixed wing pilots from their homes in Saigon out to the Air America compound at Tan Son Nhut, across the road from the DAO compound. Air America helicopters started flying to the rooftop LZs in Saigon and either shuttled the evacuees back to the DAO compound or flew out to the ships of TF76. By 10:30 all of Air America's fixed-wing aircraft had departed Tan Son Nhut, evacuating all non-essential personnel and as many Vietnamese evacuees as they could carry and headed for Thailand. At some point during the morning RVNAF personnel stole 5 ICCS UH1-H Hueys and one Air America Bell 204 from the Air America ramp.

At 11:00 the security situation at the Air America compound was deteriorating as General Carey did not wish to risk his Marines by extending his perimeter to cover the Air America compound (LZ 40), so all Air America helicopters from this time operated out of the tennis courts in the DAO Annex (LZ 35). This move created fuel problems for Air America as they no longer had access to the fuel supplies in their compound and at least initially they were refused fuel by the ships of TF76. According to US Naval Archives, at 12:30 an Air America Bell 205 landed Air Vice Marshal Nguyễn Cao Kỳ, Madame Kỳ, Dorothy Martin (wife of Ambassador Martin) and others on the USS Denver, however contemporary reports and photos state that Marshal Kỳ piloted his own UH-1H Huey to the USS Midway.

At approximately 14:30, Air America Bell 205 serial number "N47004" landed on the roof of the Pittman Apartment Building at 22 Gia Long Street to collect a senior Vietnamese intelligence source and his family. The Pittman Building wasn't an approved LZ, but when the agreed pickup point at the Lee Hotel at 6 Chien Si Circle was declared unusable, CIA Station Chief Tom Polgar asked Oren B. Harnage, Deputy Chief of the Embassy’s Air Branch to change the pickup to the Pittman Building, which was the home of the Assistant Station Chief and had an elevator shaft that should support the weight of a Huey. Harnage boarded an Air America Huey from the Embassy's rooftop heliport and flew the short distance to the Pittman Building. Harnage leaned out of the Huey and helped approximately 15 evacuees board the Huey from the narrow helipad. The scene was famously captured on film by Hubert van Es (see The Photo below).

Air America helicopters continued to make rooftop pickups until after nightfall by which time navigation became increasingly difficult. Helicopters overflew the designated LZs to check no Americans had been left behind and then the last helicopters (many low on fuel) headed out to TF76, located the USS Midway or the USS Hancock and shut down. All Air America flights had ceased by 21:00. With its available fleet of only 20 Hueys (3 of which were impounded, ditched or damaged at TF76), Air America had moved over 1000 evacuees to the DAO compound, the Embassy or out to the ships of TF76.