Operation Frequent Wind 1975

Operation Frequent Wind (1975 )

Military / Event
Subevent of: Vietnam War

Wikipedia: right|thumb|220px| CH-53 helicopters on the deck of USS Midway during Operation Frequent Wind, April 1975.]right|thumb|220px|Vietnamese Iroquois|UH-1 pushed over board.]Operation Frequent Wind was the emergency evacuation by helicopter from Saigon, South Vietnam, in April 1975 during the last days of the Vietnam War.

Operation Frequent Wind

The operation was based on Operation Eagle Pull, the American evacuation by air of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on April 12, 1975. Operation Eagle Pull had been a huge success in terms of meeting all goals set out by military planners."Frequent Wind" was the second code name chosen when the original code name "Talon Vise" was compromised. A code that was to be used to signal the start of Frequent Wind was distributed to the press and American civilians in the city. The code was a quote on Armed Forces Radio: the comment that the temperature is rising, followed by eight bars of White Christmas. (Japanese journalists were concerned that they would not recognize the tune and had to get someone to sing it to them).In the run up to the evacuation, thousands of Vietnamese wanted to escape the encroaching communist forces. With so many desperate people and so many civilians in knowledge of security codes, security was broken almost as soon as the code song was given out. When the operation started thousands of Vietnamese tried to flood what was thought to be the US embassy in Saigon . One of the landing zones was frequently referred to as the US Embassy, but in fact is an apartment building several blocks away (this building was Pittman Apartments which was used as residential quarters for various US diplomatic personn...