Aug 29 2023 36 mins 2
Picture it: April 1975. Saigon has fallen. Thousands are frantic to get out. They take to the roof of an apartment building and fly off in the largest helicopter evacuation in history. But where do they go?
At least 17 head out to sea and attempt to land aboard USS KIRK, the destroyer-escort where a young Dick McKenna is the executive officer.
In this podcast Dick shares his experience over those harrowing days in late April, and describes what it was like when "Operation Frequent Wind" suddenly transformed his ship into a temporary home for over 150 Vietnamese refugees and part of the rescue of over 30,000 people.
Appendix:
The Knox class destroyer escort USS KIRK was commissioned Sept. 9, 1972.
Following Operation Frequent Wind she continued to serve the US Navy until her decommissioning in 1993.
She was loaned to the Taiwanese Navy in August of that year, stricken from the US Navy in 1995, and purchased by Taiwan in 1999.
She still serves the Taiwanese Navy today.
In the years following the fall of Saigon, the US Navy Bureau of Medicine decided to commission a movie titled, "The Lucky Few" to tell the tale of the medical efforts involved in the rescue.
Because of "The Lucky Few," the KIRK was featured in Rory Kennedy's Academy Award nominated film, "The Last Days of Vietnam."
Operation Frequent Wind remains one of the greatest humanitarian acts in the history of the United States military.
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