Objective: To evacuate the Saigon area in the final hours before the city was captured.

Description: FREQUENT WIND began at 1051 on the 29 April. Before this, RVN aircrews had jettisoned bombs and fuel tanks on the runways leaving them unusable. Americans and endangered South Vietnamese had to be evacuated by helicopter. 865 Marines were moved to the area to provide security for the operation. 4,500 Vietnamese and 395 U.S. citizens were evacuated. The last to leave were the Marines and the demolition teams. A large-scale airlift from the U.S. Embassy had never been planned, but when the Marine commander learned that several thousand Vietnamese and Americans were stranded in the compound, he directed helicpters there. Only one CH-53 could land in the courtyard and the roof would only support CH-46s. As it got dark and thunderstorms moved in, the crowd outside the embassy left, but flying became much more difficult. Flights continued through the night with only an hour pause while the Marines were evacuated from the DAO. Meanwhile, Washington feared that refugee flights might continue forever, and at 0430 the pilots were ordered to only fly out Americans. By 0500 the last Americans and Ambassador Martin were flown from the embassy. At 0753 the last helicopters loaded the Marine security force and left for the fleet. About 420 Vietnamese were left in the compound and thousands more in Saigon. 978 Americans and about 1,100 Vietnamese had been evacuated.

Title: The Encyclopedia Of The Vietnam War: A Political, Social & Military History

Title: Preliminary Checklist Of United States Military Operations In Southeast Asia

Vietnam Center & Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive