For retired Rear Adm. Lawrence Chambers, Sunday’s marking of 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War was a red-letter day.
“I have to tell you [that] ever since we scheduled this event years ago, my main purpose in life has been to keep me alive for this day so I can stand up here and tell you this story,” said the 96-year-old former ship captain, again aboard the aircraft carrier Midway.
Gathered before him were thousands of American and Vietnamese military veterans and refugees who literally owe their lives — and their families’ lives — to him.
Sunday, at the USS Midway Museum, Chambers was greeted as a hero.
That’s because at the end of April 1975 he made room there for thousands fleeing war to start new lives in the United States.
(So many people wanted to speak to Chambers and have their photos taken with him that organizers had difficulty restarting the four-hour program after an intermission.)
Chambers had risked his career saving South Vietnamese refugees.
“I was scared to death because the [flag-ship] admiral said he was going to put me in jail” for ordering the dumping of Air Force and Army aircraft overboard.
The Midway had left port in Japan and drew near to South Vietnam as its capture by North Vietnamese Communists was imminent. Operation Frequent Wind’s purpose was to evacuate remaining civilian Americans and at-risk Vietnamese personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon.
More than 7,000 South Vietnamese refugees and government officials were evacuated in the final days of the Southeast Asian war.
‘Incredible bravery’ saluted
“It was without question one of the most chaotic and difficult experiences for many of those in attendance with us today,” said retired Rear Adm. Terry Kraft, CEO of the Midway Museum.
“But due to the incredible bravery and courage displayed by so many South Vietnamese and equally incredible acts of kindness extended by the crew of the USS Midway, nearly 3,100 evacuees were safely flown to the Midway into the start of their new lives, new lives of freedom in the United States.”
The naval officer pointed out that the refugees never wanted to leave the homeland they loved. But their lives were in jeopardy.
“But through fearless determination and resilience,” Kraft said, “these new Americans and their children have not just survived but thrived.”
The Midway Museum CEO explained: “No one trained the Midway crew for this event, but they knew instinctively what was the right thing to do. They comforted the families arriving on the Midway — many with only the shirts on their backs. These sailors represented the best of what America stood for in 1975 and continues to stand for today.”
It was the courage, heroism and compassion on that ship a half-century ago that was being commemorated Sunday, he said at the live-streamed event.
Events on the flight deck — festooned with Old Glory and the red-striped flag of South Vietnam — included cultural dances, songs, remembrances of Vietnamese refugees and stories from Midway officers from the ’70s.
Recalling chaotic events
In vivid detail, Chambers recalled the chaotic days and surprise turn of events on April 29 and 30 aboard ship.
Midway’s crew spotted a small plane circling the ship. Its Vietnamese pilot dropped four notes, three of which landed in the water and one on the ship’s deck.
The note requested that helicopters (Air Force Sikorsky HH 53 “Super Jolly Green Giants”) be moved so the pilot could land. The pilot — in a Cessna O-1 Bird Dog — was fleeing Vietnam with his wife and five children.
An admiral told Chambers to instruct the pilot to ditch the plane.
Chambers didn’t.
He understood that the pilot didn’t have enough fuel to return to land. The ship was 100 nautical miles from the coast.
Instead, he literally gave the pilot a green light to land — after first instructing his crew to shove some helicopters in the ocean to make room.
Pilot went with his gut
The pilot, Vietnamese Air Force Maj. Buang Ly, had never landed on an aircraft carrier before, “but when I looked at my family, my gut told me I could do it, and I did it.”
Florida resident Ly, 95, said he’d noticed other helicopters flying above the South China Sea and followed them to the Midway.
Chambers said he thought at the time: “He had to be a total idiot to think that somebody’s going to push $100 million worth of stuff over the side to give him permission to land.
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“You know, the two of us together, he lost his mind first,” Chambers said. “And I had the admiral yelling at me. I lost mine (mind).”
Speaking of the helicopters pushed into the sea, the retired rear admiral said, “I didn’t own any of those. Not a single thing I pushed over the side had ‘U.S. Navy’ on it. They had U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army.”
The audience laughed.
Once he landed, Ly said he was taken to a ship office. He thought: “I just lost my country. What are they doing to me next? Are they prepared to take away my pilot license too?”
To his surprise, Chambers instead took off his Navy aviator wings and pinned them on Ly.
Sunday, Chambers called Ly “the bravest man I’ve ever met in my life, and I must be the dumbest one to think that we can make it happen, OK?”
The crew was so impressed by Ly safely landing his Cessna (without a tail hook) that they collected $10,000 for his family. Ly said many wonderful things have happened during his life in Florida, including his family becoming naturalized citizens.
Copters shoved overboard
Chopper after chopper arrived at the carrier. After each landed, and passengers got out, the aircraft were shoved into the sea to make room for the next, Chamber told a vast crowd.
He said it was hard to imagine how some of “those little bitty” Huey helicopters — designed to carry 10-mmber Army or Marine squads — ferried as many as 50 people (with luggage) to the Midway.
Asked by Times of San Diego what has been 1975’s lasting lesson for him, Chambers said: “You have to have the courage to do what you think is right regardless of the outcome. That’s the only thing you can live with.”
“To do something stupid because you’re being ordered to do it is not going to work. And if that turns into a disaster, then how in the hell do you live with it?”
He added: “You have to have a little heart and a thick skin. And do what you think is the right thing to do and … live with it. And that’s all we can do in life.”
One of the Midway evacuees, now 81-year-old Ngan Nguyen, came to the edge of the stage to thank Chambers, shaking his hand and gifting him a traditional conical hat.
“I want to thank America,” she told Times of San Diego. “They show kindness. They open their arms, their hearts for the refugee.”
‘Saigon fell. Broke your heart’
She and her family landed on the Midway on April 29, 1975. They were on the last helicopter leaving the U.S. Embassy that day — part of the iconic photo of that moment.
“When we got on the helicopter, thousands of people were still left behind,” Nguyen said. “The next day, they announced that Saigon fell. Broke your heart. You lost everything. You don’t know where you are going, but you can’t stay behind.”
Nguyen said they felt sorry for the ones left behind. Many worked for the American government as she did.
“It’s very sad and their lives were in jeopardy,” she added.
Her brother-in-law was a U.S citizen and assisted the family in leaving.
“I only had two hours to decide, and I made the right decision,” she said, but didn’t have time to tell her mother goodbye.
“I only had time to run home and grab my (three) children and important documents and leave. And thank God we make it out,” Nguyen said.
Landing on the Midway 50 years ago still feels like it happened only yesterday — memories that are still fresh.
Hugh Nguyen, Orange County county clerk/recorder, was 7 during the evacuation — leaving the only home he knew, clinging to his grandparents’ hands. He talked about his gratitude for opportunities in his life.
Dr. Dung Trinh spoke of the gray, drizzly day in Saigon when his family waited their turn to run onto a helicopter among confusion and sounds of war: shooting and screaming. He slept on the lower deck on the Midway that night, lying on bubble wrap.
Later, he arrived at his new home in El Centro with “nothing but hope.”
Thu Mai Dinh described her family’s journey to freedom.
Dinh said her father “took a leap of faith” on April 30, 1975, gathering family, friends and neighbors — 89 total – on a fishing boat and heading out to sea.
With hope fading after four days adrift at sea, Midway crew spotted and rescued them, she said.
“The kindness that was shown was something my family and I will never forget,” she said. “Your kindness gave us the opportunity for new life.”
Over the past 50 years, her initial 11-member family has grown to 58 in America.
“Today we are all happy, healthy and living a fulfilling life and all contributing to this great nation,” Dinh told Midway veterans. “Without your courage, kindness and generosity, we would not be here today.”
As he ended his speech, Chambers credited others.
“Thanks to the successful humanitarian efforts of the crew of the Midway, there are many productive and loyal Vietnamese American citizens in our country.
“These brave Vietnamese patriots and dedicated sailors and Marines of Midway are the real heroes of the evacuation,” he said. “I feel very proud to have been a participant.”
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