The Last Marines to Leave Saigon
April 1975, the Embassy Evacuation, and the Final Hours of the Vietnam War
For years, American Marines had arrived in Vietnam by helicopter.
On the morning of April 30, 1975, they left the same way.
There would be no victory parade and no triumphant withdrawal. Saigon was collapsing. North Vietnamese forces were closing on the capital, thousands of desperate people were trying to escape, and a small group of Marines remained at the U.S. Embassy with a simple final mission:
Protect the evacuation until the last possible moment — and then get themselves out.
When the final 11 Marines climbed aboard a CH-46 Sea Knight from the embassy roof, they became the last American ground security force to leave Saigon.
The End Was Coming
By April 1975, South Vietnam was collapsing with astonishing speed.
North Vietnamese forces had launched a major offensive and swept south. South Vietnamese defenses crumbled, President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu resigned on April 21, and the forces defending the approaches to Saigon were being overwhelmed.
American officials had prepared evacuation plans. The preferred method was to use fixed-wing aircraft from Tan Son Nhut Air Base.
That option effectively disappeared on April 29.
Rocket and artillery attacks struck the airfield and made continued large-scale fixed-wing evacuation too dangerous.
The final option was ordered.
Helicopters.
Operation Frequent Wind had begun.
"White Christmas"
Americans in Saigon had been given an unusual signal telling them when the final evacuation was underway.
A coded weather announcement would be broadcast, followed by the playing of "White Christmas" over Armed Forces Radio.
On April 29, the signal went out.
Across Saigon, Americans and designated Vietnamese began moving toward evacuation points while helicopters launched from U.S. Navy ships offshore.
It must have been one of the strangest sounds ever associated with the end of a war.
Christmas music playing in tropical Saigon while an army approached the city.
The Marines Go Back In
Before Americans could be brought out, Marines had to go in.
The 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade provided the Marine forces supporting the evacuation.
Marines from 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines were inserted into the Defense Attaché Office compound near Tan Son Nhut to provide security for the evacuation.
Marine helicopters began moving evacuees toward ships of the U.S. Seventh Fleet waiting offshore.
The evacuation from the DAO compound proceeded despite the chaos surrounding the city.
Once the evacuees were gone, the Marines securing the compound withdrew.
But across Saigon, another evacuation had become much more difficult.
The U.S. Embassy was surrounded by people desperate to leave.
The Embassy
The evacuation plan had not anticipated the number of people who would converge on the embassy.
Vietnamese civilians crowded around the compound and attempted to get inside. Embassy employees, Americans and Vietnamese associated with the United States waited for helicopters.
Marine helicopters flew repeatedly into Saigon through the afternoon, night and early morning.
The flights continued hour after hour.
Every helicopter that arrived represented another group of people escaping a city that was rapidly running out of time.
The Ambassador Leaves
Shortly before 5 a.m. on April 30, the end was approaching.
U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin boarded a Marine CH-46 Sea Knight known as *Lady Ace 09*.
At 4:58 a.m., the helicopter lifted away from the embassy.
The American ambassador was gone.
But the Marines weren't.
Eleven Marines Left Behind
Major James H. Kean, officer in charge of the Marine security force at the embassy, still had ten Marines with him.
Eleven men remained.
With the ambassador gone, Kean began withdrawing his Marines into the embassy building.
Doors were barricaded behind them.
Floor by floor, the Marines moved upward.
Below them were Vietnamese desperately trying to escape before North Vietnamese forces entered the city.
The Marines continued toward the roof.
Eventually, Kean and his ten Marines reached the helicopter landing area.
Now there was only one thing left to do.
Wait for one more helicopter.
Swift 2-2
The helicopter sent to retrieve them was *Swift 2-2*, a Marine CH-46 Sea Knight from Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 164.
The aircraft approached the embassy during the final moments of the evacuation.
Kean and his ten Marines climbed aboard.
Major Kean checked his watch.
It was seven minutes before eight in the morning.
At approximately 7:53 a.m. on April 30, 1975, *Swift 2-2* lifted away from the embassy.
There were no American Marines left at the embassy.
Thirty-two minutes later, the eleven Marines stepped onto the deck of USS *Okinawa*.
Their mission was over.
Two Marines Who Never Left
Not every Marine made it home.
Hours before the helicopter evacuation began, Corporal Charles McMahon Jr. and Lance Corporal Darwin D. Judge were guarding the Defense Attaché Office compound at Tan Son Nhut.
During the early morning hours of April 29, North Vietnamese rockets struck the compound.
Both Marines were killed.
McMahon and Judge are recognized among the final American servicemen killed by enemy action in Vietnam.
They died while helping protect the evacuation that would carry thousands of others to safety.
A City Falls
The Marines had barely escaped before the war reached its final scene.
Within hours, North Vietnamese tanks entered central Saigon and crashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace.
South Vietnam surrendered.
Saigon was under Communist control.
The Vietnam War, as Americans had known it for more than a decade, was over.
More Than 7,000 Evacuated
Operation Frequent Wind evacuated more than 7,000 Americans, Vietnamese and other people by helicopter.
Marine and Air Force helicopters flew continuously between Saigon and American ships offshore.
The flight decks became crowded with aircraft and refugees.
South Vietnamese military pilots also flew helicopters toward the American fleet, often carrying their families and anyone else they could fit aboard.
Some helicopters were pushed overboard after landing simply to make room for the next aircraft.
It was an extraordinary scene.
A nation was collapsing while helicopters streamed toward ships waiting offshore.
Those Who Could Not Leave
There was no clean ending to Operation Frequent Wind.
Not everyone who wanted to escape could be evacuated.
Vietnamese who had worked with the United States, government employees, military personnel and their families faced an uncertain future.
For many Americans and Marines who participated in the evacuation, leaving people behind became one of the most painful memories of the operation.
The helicopters could not carry everyone.
Eventually, the evacuation had to end.
The Photograph Everyone Remembers
One photograph became perhaps the most recognizable image of the fall of Saigon.
It shows people climbing a narrow staircase toward a helicopter perched on top of a building.
For decades, the photograph has frequently been described as showing the evacuation from the roof of the U.S. Embassy.
It does not.
The famous photograph shows an Air America helicopter evacuating people from another building in Saigon.
The actual Marine evacuation from the U.S. Embassy took place elsewhere.
The mistaken description became almost as famous as the photograph itself.
The Last Marines
The Marines at the embassy were not fighting to capture territory.
They weren't assaulting a beach.
They weren't taking a hill.
Their job was to hold a shrinking perimeter while other people escaped.
First, that perimeter was the embassy compound.
Then it became the embassy building.
Then the upper floors.
Finally, it became a rooftop.
By the morning of April 30, there was nowhere farther to withdraw.
*Swift 2-2* descended toward the embassy one final time.
Eleven Marines climbed aboard.
The helicopter lifted from the roof and turned toward the sea.
Below them, Saigon was entering its final hours.
For the United States Marine Corps, one of the longest chapters in its history had ended.
The last Marines were leaving Vietnam.