Operation Frequent Wind - Planning

Planning

Evacuation plans are standard for most American embassies; the Talon Vise/Frequent Wind plan had been built up over a number of years. "Frequent Wind" was the second code name chosen when the original code name "Talon Vise" was compromised.

By 1975 the Talon Vise/Frequent Wind plan had a figure of approximately 8000 US citizens and third country nationals to be evacuated, but it was never able to conclude a figure for the number of South Vietnamese to be evacuated. There were approximately 17,000 Vietnamese employees on embassy rolls which using an average of seven members per family meant that the number was 119,000 and taken with other categories of Vietnamese the number quickly increased to over 200,000. The Talon Vise/Frequent Wind plan set out four possible evacuation options as follows:

Option 1: Evacuation by commercial airlift from Tan Son Nhut and other South Vietnamese airports as required

Option 2: Evacuation by military airlift from Tan Son Nhut and other South Vietnamese airports as required

Option 3: Evacuation by sea lift from Saigon port

Option 4: Evacuation by helicopter to US Navy ships in the South China Sea

With Option 4, the helicopter evacuation would be expected to closely follow that of Operation Eagle Pull, the American evacuation by air of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on 12 April 1975. Operation Eagle Pull had been a success in terms of meeting all goals set out by military planners.