The Last Flight Out

 [00:00:00] PREFACE

[00:00:01] Miki: He took off everything down to his undergarment and he gave the thumbs up to... the captain, to the crew.

The captain sends down a... small little rescue skiff with a few guys on board there. And... it was either going to be... a rescue or  a recovery.

 [00:01:00]

Introduction

[00:01:04] Miki:  My father, Ba Van Nguyen was born January 10th, 1940.  And, as a... young child growing up in that time in Vietnam, his mom and dad lived in the... countryside.

Vietnam as a history itself has been occupied by... Chinese, by the French, by the Japanese there during the World War timeframe. And so, he grew up being exposed to all of this.

[00:01:32] Steve W: It is quite a leap from the countryside of Vietnam in the forties to flying helicopters for the South Vietnam Air Force in the epicenter of a civil war and global conflict.  

[00:01:42] Miki: His mom and dad, recognized that one of the best ways to get out of the countryside and to improve on... the family and... the life of the family was to move into the big city of Saigon.

And... that's what they did. And so my... father went [00:02:00] through... high school and eventually... college and upon graduating from college here in the... late fifties, early sixties, wanted to... advance his career.

And one of the best ways to advance his career was to, at this time, join the military, the Air Force.

And so he went through all of the... testing that the... the military put him through and passed all that and got an opportunity to go to the US in the early sixties, 63, 64, for... flight training focused around helicopters.

[00:02:34] Steve W: And in 1975, you were a six and a half year-old kid growing up on a targeted military base. What was that like?

[00:02:43] Miki:  Not many kids can say that they had a bunker in the back of their... house, hauling home boxes of grenade. And my mom would freak out, you know, as a young boy, I was just very curious about things...

...and this was just a part of my life growing up, being on... the base, not knowing if you're [00:03:00] gonna get shelled one day or the next hence the need for a bunker. So that's... that was my life growing up.

[00:03:10] Steve W: Now, your mother was a key part of the story, wasn't she? Tell me a little bit about your mother. I know she started out as a nurse and then had to change once she moved to the military base. Is that right?

[00:03:23] Miki:  She... started over again at the barracks, trying to make a living, watching myself as a young kid and brother Mecca, and then, baby sister Mina.

She had, like, a little 7-eleven  selling... cigarettes, beer, chocolates to the military folks living on the barracks. And so, you know, she did what she could as a mom and a wife to support the kids while my dad was off on... on missions.

 Every day she would live in fear, not knowing if her husband would come back. This was a life that she lived during those times, being married to a military person.

So, [00:04:00] massive respect to my mom.  She played a... big role in his life, in my life and the... and the whole family.

Saigon is falling

[00:04:14] Steve W: After the 1954 Geneva Accords, when Vietnam was split North and South, the United States supported the anti-communist South by providing financial aid, military advisors, and political backing.

By the early sixties, the South was struggling against the insurgency of the National Liberation front of South Vietnam, better known as the Viet Cong, supported by the Communist North Vietnam.

In 1965, Operation Rolling Thunder marked the entry of the first American combat troops into Vietnam. The war that transpired was brutal, bloody, and expensive. Up to three million Vietnamese had died, and 58,000 [00:05:00] American troops would not return home.

 From 1969, President Richard Nixon ordered the gradual withdrawal of troops and following the Paris Peace Accords, all American combat troops had left Vietnam by the end of March, 1973.

At that point, the only remaining American presence in Vietnam, mainly Saigon, were diplomatic staff, personnel involved with economic and humanitarian assistance, and a small contingent of US Marines to protect the embassy and other US facilities.

Then came Watergate.

When President Nixon was forced to resign in August, 1974, the North Vietnamese took the opportunity to launch a major offensive on the South. The assault, which started in early March 1975, was devastating.

By the end of [00:06:00] the April, the North Vietnamese were advancing on Saigon.

At that time, Ba Vǎn Nguyẽn was a Major and Chinook pilot in the 237th Helicopter Squadron of the South Vietnamese Air Force.

Decision time

[00:06:20] Miki:  In the last few days towards the actual fall, where the... North and the... and the Viet Cong came in, and we see the iconic images of the tanks rolling into the Embassy there, in Saigon...

US Embassy, Saigon, April 1975

...the days leading up to that point there were extremely stressful anxiety, and my father being a part of that whole effort in terms of trying to figure out how to get out,  saving not only himself, but his crew and his family.

These were the last few days of trying to figure out what to do when your commanding officer and the other elite military folks in the south have already left with their family.

[00:06:57] Steve W: One option Ba couldn't [00:07:00] contemplate was to allow his family to stay living in the barracks. It was now too dangerous.

[00:07:05] Miki: My dad moved us from Bien Hoa off the military barracks into our grandma's house, the last, you know, week or two of April, 1975.

And so that's where we ended up. My mom, our family at grandma's house in the middle of downtown Saigon.

Tan Son Nhat Airport, 28th April 1975

[00:07:21] Steve W: On the evening of the 28th of April, 1975, four Chinooks were gathered at the southern perimeter of Tan Son Nhat Airport. Ba addressed his last remaining crews.

[00:07:33] Miki: We've gotta figure out what to do, guys. Our boss, our commanding officer, they've left and we're not hearing any news.

As a matter of fact, we're getting information from other senior leaders that have said, "Why are you guys still here? The south is done. There is nowhere to go."  

[00:07:52] Steve W: And despite his chain of command apparently disintegrating, Ba was obviously very reticent to [00:08:00] abandon his command post, wasn't he?

[00:08:02] Miki: He didn't want to break rank, runaway. He wanted to just hang it in there as long as he could until he got the last set of information that he knew there was nothing else. There was no other orders to fulfill.

 And so at this point, the analogy that he used was, "When you've waited so long and

there is no other hope,

everybody else that you report to have already left, guys, this is our horse".

And when he means 'our horse', this is our helicopter at this point. Right?

Tan Son Nhat Airport, 29th April 1975

[00:08:31] Steve W: That night, Ba and his men slept under their Chinooks, though perhaps 'rested' would've been more accurate. Tan Son Nhat Airport had been under rocket fire throughout the night and by the morning, the northern perimeter had been breached. It was now the 29th of April 1975.

[00:08:52] Miki: The decision at this point was, "Alright guys, we're, we're on our own. And, I... I've gotta go and figure out how to get my [00:09:00] family. And from there, we'll decide what to do next. And if you guys want to come with me, great. If not, I'm not telling you what to do, right?"

[00:09:07] Steve W: You might be thinking that Ba was going to grab a military Jeep, or something similar, to collect his family, but he had other ideas.

Ba picks up his family from Saigon

[00:09:22] Miki:   He grabbed a... Chinook  and a copilot and gunner, flew into Saigon. And at the time there, my grandma had a play field in front of her house. Saigon's very heavily densely populated, many of which the... homes were built with tin roofs.

And as we all know, a Chinook helicopter is... you can hear that from a mile away if you're driving down the road, it's thunderous, right? That sort of a sound. So, causes a lot of commotion. If you put that down... in the middle of a densely populated neighborhood.

And that's what he did. He [00:10:00] dropped that thing right into the... play yard there.  

And so... there was a lot of folks coming out obviously be curious, you know, "What's going on?" It's not every day that you have a... equipment of this type... come into the neighborhood. And so imagine that being like right within 50 feet or so.

[00:10:25] Steve W: Landing the Chinook wasn't Ba's only concern. Nobody knew who they could trust anymore.

[00:10:33] Miki: Many of the... military police would've worked with the North or the... communists. One police car did approach the Chinook as it... landed.

And so he told one of the gunners to go and man the gun and point the gun back at the cop to hold him back. While at the same time, he told one of a crew to... drop the... rear hatch of the Chinook.

And... waved in my mom [00:11:00] and our immediate family; myself, brother, ran to the back of the... Chinook and quickly lifted up and got the heck outta there.

[00:11:11] Steve W: I've got images of this massive Chinook appearing over the horizon and closing in on a quiet suburb in Saigon. What was your mother actually expecting?

[00:11:23] Miki: Well, the... message that he told my mom was, "When I come, you get the kids bags, everything's all ready to go, so that it'll be quick, quick out of there".

But none of us knew that he would've come with a Chinook. Perhaps... maybe he... would've come with a car or a military car or something of that sort... did not know that he would've actually dropped a Chinook right in front of grandma's house like that. So,

[00:11:47] Steve W: So your mother wasn't actually expecting the Chinook, but she knew your father's personality and she'd have been ready for anything.

[00:11:53] Miki: Yeah. My dad's character is one where you 'gotta do what you gotta do'. And, you know, "I'm [00:12:00] sorry if I've offended you" or, "Sorry if I've blown up your tin roof here and there".

My grandma years later on shared with my dad saying, "You know, I had to pay back some of the neighbours, you know, help 'em fix their tin roof when you came and blowing it up with the wind and the helicopter".

So... but my dad was a maverick. He is one of those types of personalities where do what you had to do and... you know, yeah.

Rendezvous with squadron at My Tho Lake

[00:12:24] Steve W: Ba flew his family directly to the rendezvous point at My Tho Lake to reconnect with the other members of the squadron.

[00:12:31] Miki:  This was the last time to really say their goodbyes to their own girlfriends, and say goodbye to their friends and family and pick up some rations here and there...  

...load up on gas to go further south away from Saigon and... the hot area, perhaps find an island to... lay low for a bit and... onward.  

[00:12:55] Steve W: After their brief goodbyes, Ba was pragmatic with the squadron. [00:13:00]

[00:13:00] Miki:  "If you want to tag with me, if you wanna get on this Chinook with me, great. If not, there's the other Chinook right? This is the Wild West at this point, and then this is our horse, and we gotta figure out how to...  get outta town".

[00:13:11] Steve W: And with that, Ba's family and a few others boarded the Chinook and headed south. He had a lot to think about. There was no manual for this situation. No checklist. Somewhere out in the South China Sea was the answer. It had to be. There was no other choice.

[00:13:39] Steve W: Miki, tell me about Operation Frequent Wind.

Operation Frequent Wind

[00:13:43] Miki: Operation Frequent Wind was an effort on the 29th and the 30th... and perhaps even a few days before then...  US Navy, US Marines, evacuating many of the US personnel and many of the South Vietnamese folks in the government working with the US.

 That's where we see all of the [00:14:00] iconic images of the helicopter landing on the rooftops and people scurrying, people trying to get into the embassy to get into a... helicopter to get out. So that was Operation Frequent Wind.

Flying South East

[00:14:11] Steve W: Now, pilots will tell you that you never take off unless you know where you are able to land. Ba had heard of Operation Frequent Wind, but that was about it. He was flying out to sea with limited fuel, family on board, no buoyancy aids and definitely no idea where he was going to land.  

[00:14:41] Miki: These Chinooks were not meant to go out into the ocean, you know. Flying over a small lake or a stream perhaps, but they did not have any sort of flotation device for anybody... let alone that many people on there. So it was a... big risk that he [00:15:00] took.  

[00:15:00] Steve W: So they're flying out over the South China Sea desperately looking for somewhere to land. After what seemed like an eternity Ba spotted smoke in the distance.

Ba spots a ship

[00:15:13] Miki: He finally sees a little dot in the distance  and he gets excited, you know, goes fast, right? Pick up the pace, get over there quick.

Because the thinking maybe is you know, get there quick and... if it doesn't work out, then hop and go find the left or right, up or down, find some other opportunity to land.

USS Kirk

Approaching the USS Kirk

[00:15:38] Steve W: The ship that Ba had spotted was a US destroyer escort, the USS Kirk, currently patrolling the South China Sea, looking out for any North Vietnamese jet fighters. With this in mind, Ba needed to be careful in the way he approached the Kirk.

[00:15:56] Miki: He had to ease off on the throttle, not to look aggressive, [00:16:00] coming up to this 'cause obviously... tense moment, tense times right now. And... who's to say the US Navy below would've shot him down had he approached it aggressively, and that's what he did.

He throttled down, he comes up to it in a... a less aggressive way, if... there's ever a... way to... look not so, not so enemy-ish, I guess, for a lack of a better word.

[00:16:26] Steve W: Ba was right to be sensitive to the mindset of the USS Kirk crew. A Chinook was approaching directly and they needed to be clear whose side it was on.

[00:16:37] Miki: My mom looking through the window can see the crew below holding up some... guns pointing at... the helicopter to keep them at bay. They're like, "You're too big".

Don't shoot us!  Miki's mum shows her eight-month old baby in window

And... we see images many, many years later on of pictures of the... US Navy crew below holding, pushing, with their hands waving, like, telling this huge Chinook helicopter, "Don't get [00:17:00] close"! But he kept circling the ship.

 And... I say 'the ship' because there was really no way of knowing the name of the ship or... the captain. It was just one man with a family and just trying to find help.  

USS Kirk crew warn Ba Van Nguyen away

[00:17:14] Steve W: The Chinook was getting low on fuel. There was very little extra time to lose, so...

[00:17:20] Miki: my mom held up my baby sister, then... eight month old baby, holding up to the... window, the port side of the window, to show the... crew below that there were, you know, kids onboard and, "Don't shoot, we need help".

Hueys landing on USS Kirk

[00:17:38] Steve W: It turned out that the USS Kirk had spent very little time on military defense that day, having instead found itself at the epicenter of a humanitarian rescue operation.

Other helicopters had flown out to it already, but with a difference: they'd arrived in Huey's, much smaller helicopters [00:18:00] than a Chinook.

[00:18:01] Miki:  Many other Vietnamese pilots and their families also had the same idea as my father. And they came out to the Pacific trying to find help as well on... many of these US Navy ships.

The only difference between my father and others was that the others coming out had smaller Huey helicopters, meaning that they were able to land on a... small frigate like the... USS Kirk.

[00:18:29] Steve W: The problem was that once a Huey had landed, it wasn't taking off again. So there was no space for the next Huey. But the USS Kirk crew conjured up an innovative solution.

[00:18:42] Miki: The crew would push these smaller helicopters over the side. And then allowing the next helicopter to come and land and then, you know, push over. Family would get out.

Manhandling a Huey overboard.... come on guys, push!

There she goes...

...into the South China Sea

But in this situation, my father's Chinook couldn't do that. It was, it was just simply, too big... and the ship was too narrow.

 This ship [00:19:00] had all of the expensive  radar, sonar, all of the antenna, all of the equipment, high tech equipment back then.

[00:19:07] Steve W: Ba made one last effort to communicate with the USS Kirk.

Ba positions Chinook over stern of USS Kirk

[00:19:12] Miki: So he got on the... radio and that English that he learned years ago came in handy enough to... enough to talk with the... Captain and...  so... on the radio, talking with the captain and crew figuring out, all right, "What are we gonna do? what are the options?"

Basically, "Ba, what... are you thinking?" And so he told the captain, like, " Okay, I'm gonna hover in the back, you know, on the stern of this ship. And, we're going to... jump!"

[00:19:45] Steve W: Ba's suggestion was to hover over a moving frigate in a rolling sea and encourage his family to jump off the Chinook onto the ship's deck. It was fraught with danger.

 Within close proximity to the [00:20:00] stern of the frigate, there were objects,antennae... if you hit any of these, you've had it, as have probably anyone standing on the deck at the time.

Despite all of this, the captain of the USS Kirk agreed to the plan.

[00:20:15] Miki: So, he kept the... the ship at a steady... pace, 'cause if he left the ship idle or... hovering, the swell of the current would've pushed the ship, you know, the wind, in a way that is hard to... allow my dad to hover behind it.

And... that's what... that's what Captain did, he kept the ship moving steady forward, and... my dad hovered behind the... ship.  

[00:20:40] Steve W: Hovering behind a ship is one thing, but controlling a twin-rotor juggernaut to sit in a position that's steady enough for your family to leap to safety is something else altogether.

[00:20:53] Miki: As the ship was moving forward, my dad had to fly, basically, diagonal backwards, if you can imagine [00:21:00] that, where he's looking over his shoulder as the co-pilot opens the starboard door, the left side door where people would come in and out...

 ...and at the same time flying diagonal backwards, hovering it, the Chinook, 15 some odd feet above the deck below.

[00:21:23] Steve W: When he's ready, Ba gives permission for his children to be ushered out of his helicopter and hopefully into the arms of the waiting deckhands... a moment that Miki remembers all too well...

[00:21:39] Miki: As the copilot opened the left door there, we all started to jump down, myself, my mom had to drop baby sister onto the... deck below.

And the brave crew of the USS Kirk, catching all of us, catching the... baby, as my mom... [00:22:00] dropped the baby sister down below.

[00:22:07] Steve W: It sounds a little precarious for the crew on deck as well.  

[00:22:11] Miki: These guys below they were super brave themselves. This Chinook helicopter's loud, it's thunderous and standing underneath it moving like that, everything flying backwards, super risky.

And the crew took their risk  below to catch all of us.  The only... injury was one of his crew men's  girlfriend jumped down and sprained her...ankle.

So, fortunately no one got hurt jumping down and...again, thank you to...the crew below for helping us out and... catching us.

[00:22:44] Steve W: I'm guessing for you personally, it was a memory that's hard to forget.

[00:22:49] Miki: For me, again, growing up on... the barracks, I... would always, you know, at times fly with my dad here and there. And... so the smell of gasoline, the smell of aviation fuel, all of that [00:23:00] jumping around, climbing trees was just a part of my background growing up.

And following everybody and jumping down was, I don't remember any sort of emotion of feeling scared or anything like that. It was just, a part of just jumping out of a tree.

[00:23:13] Steve W: So nearly everyone has evacuated the Chinook, just Ba and the copilot are now on board. Ba is quite clear what's happening next.

[00:23:23] Miki: And so he told the copilot to make sure that everybody was clear from the back, and the copilot did that. And he came back and gave my dad a thumbs up saying, you know, "We're clear". My dad told the copilot to go... jump down to the deck and that's what the copilot did.

Ba prepares to ditch the Chinook

[00:23:44] Steve W: What Ba had achieved to this point was a little short of miraculous. Against all the odds, he'd successfully rescued his family and friends from the suburbs of Saigon with the North Vietnamese troops bearing down on them...

flown out into the South [00:24:00] China Sea with no plan and little fuel, located a willing US frigate and successfully deposited his family on its deck. Having saved his family, Ba had one last task - to save himself.  

[00:24:16] Miki: My dad hovers away from the ship all by himself, and it was just him and his horse. He had a... few options that he thought about. For sure he was not going to go back to land or... go back to Saigon or... he wanted to be with his family... absolutely.

Chinook hovering at sea level

And so that was not an option. The only option here at this moment in time was to... get off your horse, figure out some way to... get off the Chinook, surviving in... the process.

[00:24:50] Steve W: Ba had flown the Chinook a hundred yards off the stern of the USS Kirk and was in a hovering pattern with his wheels touching the sea.

At this [00:25:00] point, he realized that asking his co-pilot to get off the Chinook a moment ago might have been a little premature.

Ba was flying the beast on his own, preparing to ditch, but still fully clothed in his flying gear.

[00:25:15] Miki: So he's sitting there hovering, and trying to keep the... Chinook steady while at the same time trying to unstrap his boots, remove his belt with gun and flack jacket and...

The thinking was, it's hard to... swim or dive when you're wearing your shoes or your jeans or, you know, military gear. And that's what he did.

He took off everything down to his undergarment and he gave the thumbs up to... the captain, to the crew.

The captain sends down a... small little rescue skiff with a few guys on board there. And... it was either going to be... a rescue or  a recovery.

USS Kirk skiff prepares for rescue

[00:26:03] Steve W: [00:26:00] Ba is now literally stripped for action. As for what to do now, what does the textbook say about ditching at sea?

[00:26:12] Miki: In the case where you have to land on water or at least ditch... because remember these things that they don't have an eject button, right? And like a jet fighter plane, you can eject out of it....

In a water situation,  kill the the rotors, kill the motor so that it... right? And then let it sink slowly and then figure out some way to... get outta there.

But I'm thinking, the prop there is so long. How can you hover it, let it sink down, and you're looking up and the prop is like maybe another, I don't know, 30 feet long out of there, away from you.

So how can you,  right? So I'm sure that's what my dad was thinking. At the same time, it's like the only way to do this is to flip this guy over so that the... prop then the rotor is spitting vertical and you're able to... get out this way.

[00:26:54] Steve W: So in the cold light of day, the recommended course of action for ditching at sea [00:27:00] didn't seem like a great idea. Instead, Ba was going to control the Chinook to bear away to the right with his leg, and simultaneously leap out of the left porthole to safety.  

Ba jumps!

[00:27:14] Miki: So, thumbs up, ready to go. My father kicks the... door on his left and at the same time with his right leg push the... control, the stick in such a way that it would, lean the Chinook to the right, while at the same time, theoretically, he would jump out the...porthole to his left.

And that's... that's what he did. That's what he did.

[00:27:44] Steve W: The Chinook faded to the right as Ba leapt out of the port cockpit window into the sea. Moments later, the renowned rhythmic pulse of the Chinook's blades beating the air stopped abruptly.

[00:28:00] A split second of silence was followed by a deafening metallic shudder, as the blades furiously scythed into the water.

The Chinook blades disintegrate on impact

 Then came the crash as the body of the Chinook gave itself up to the sea. The rotors tore themselves apart and fired shards of metal ferociously in every direction.

The cacophony was replaced by an overwhelming silence. The Chinook floated below the waterline belly up with its wheels reaching up to the sky, before silently disappearing to the bottom of the South China Sea.

...and then there was silence

Ba had been seen leaping out of the cockpit, but now he had disappeared from view.

[00:28:52] Miki: The salt water's so buoyant that he tried three or four times to get down into the water immediately after the... flip.

He [00:29:00] dove down a few times and then finally on the third or the fourth attempt was able to get underneath the water and... to get away from... this explosion behind him.

[00:29:10] Steve W:  ...and just spell out why he was so concerned about getting deep at this point...

[00:29:16] Miki:  ... a shrapnel could have, or fiberglass, could have fell, you know, hit him on the head or... the dynamic of the Chinook could've flopped back on top of him, right?

As he tried to lean it to the right, it could have caved back the other way on top of him.

Ba survives and brought on board USS Kirk

[00:29:30] Steve W: Just before the Chinook sunk below the waves, a head had popped up. It was Ba. He'd done it. Against the odds, Ba had saved his family and saved himself. The rescue skiff raced towards the exhausted pilot to haul him on board.

Wow, that was close! Ba survives Chinook crash

[00:29:57] Miki: They picked him up [00:30:00] and... absolute sense of relief at this point. That was the crescendo moment.

But the days and the weeks and the months and the years up to that point not knowing the outcome and not knowing if you're gonna get shot down in one of your missions, or not knowing the few weeks or the days leading up to the... fall there... don't know, don't know.

And so, when he got picked up by the skiff there, it was just a... massive relief and flowing with adrenaline and that's where our family would say, "That's the... moment of  finally seeing freedom".

[00:30:41] Steve W: What a wonderful moment that must have been. So, Ba's in his shirt and boxer shorts, climbs on the deck.  

[00:30:51] Miki: And... the... first thing he wanted was just a cigarette before he saw his wife. Just to calm down a bit, [00:31:00] just a... just a quick little, like, calm down.

All right, "We're good now", before... seeing his wife and family.

Ba Van Nguyen meets USS Kirk Captain Paul Jacobs

[00:31:13] Steve W: The next part of the family's journey was a little more sedate. 24 hours on the USS Kirk, whisked off on a larger ship to Guam and eventually across the Pacific to Camp Pendleton, a Marines based north of San Diego, California.

Similar to many Vietnamese at the time, Ba and his family were welcomed wholeheartedly as they started their new life in Seattle, Washington State, where Mickey and his family still live today.

 In the mid nineties, Ba started to write about his life experiences.

Ba takes up writing

[00:31:47] Miki: And the stories that he would write would be published  in many of the Vietnamese newspapers, not only here in Seattle, but in other cities in the Vietnamese community.  

[00:31:59] Steve W: [00:32:00] What kind of things does he talk about in his writing?

[00:32:03] Miki: And he talks about the days leading up to the 29th, and how he resettled in the US, and the funny stories, the stressful moments of just trying to adapt in... a new country.

He also wrote about going back after 17 years in the early nineties, back to... Vietnam, to visit his mom and dad, my grandparents and family members...

... and at the same time talking with others that did not get the chance to have left and have lived and survived under a... new communist regime.

Meeting Captain Paul Jacobs and the crew of the USS Kirk

[00:32:36] Steve W: By any measure, bar's, achievement was extraordinary. But he couldn't have achieved it without the captain and crew of the USS Kirk.

 The family had been taken from the ship within 24 hours and before they knew it, they were starting a new life on the other side of the world. Contact was lost. That is until 34 years later in [00:33:00] 2009.

[00:33:05] Miki: I'm sitting at work and my mom forwards to me an email and it was addressed initially by a captain and Mr. Jan Herman, the historian, trying to find this pilot.

And I open up this email and, you know, I said to Jan and the captain, "If you're looking for the pilot that did this ditch manoeuver around the afternoon of April 29th 1975, more than likely, perhaps, that's my father".  

[00:33:36] Steve W: It turns out that the captain of the USS Kirk, Paul Jacobs and Jan Herman were indeed looking for Miki's father. At last, they'd made contact.

First things first, Jan sent the family some photos and this was the first time any of the family had seen evidence from that extraordinary day.

[00:33:58] Miki: And then we finally [00:34:00] got pictures and photos and that the stories that my dad shared around the dinner tables, he wasn't lying! He did what he did. You know, because my mom didn't see it. I didn't see it. They, they whisked us off inside the deck.

 He did what he did. He ditched it, and that's how he shared this story. And that's what we saw in those pictures.

[00:34:16] Steve W: And then the momentum kept building on the story. About a year later...

[00:34:21] Miki: Mr. Jan Herman captured all the information and then put together his own documentary, 'The Lucky Few'.

And then a year later, he put out a film documentary by the US Navy, and myself, mom, family, my dad at this time in a wheelchair with dementia, flew out to DC and it was a very, very emotional reunion.

I met the captain, met Mr. Kent Chipman, who caught the baby, the basketball, and... very, very emotional.

[00:34:51] Steve W: But there was a further, even more touching moment at the reunion.

[00:34:55] Miki:  As we roll my father... wheelchair up to the [00:35:00] podium, the captain there presented the USS Kirk Honorary Medal.  

And at the same time, I can see my father...  because of his Alzheimer's dementia, we didn't know, but I'm... at this point, we... we knew, he knew basically that as a clapping for him, an acknowledgement for him, he was able to... push himself out of the wheelchair and stand up and give a quick, you know, give a salute to the captain and crew.

He couldn't speak. My dad couldn't speak in 2009, but gave a... gave a salute just to say thank you.

[00:35:42] Steve W: With so much renewed interest in the family story, Miki set his mind to converting his father's writings into a book.

[00:35:51] Miki: The way that my mom and I saw this was that we all know that when you publish something in a newspaper a few days later, [00:36:00] it gets recycled right? And the stories are lost.

We started to look on the computer that my mom and dad used back then, and found all of these old word documents, files. And... it was all there.

And so in the past year here... worked with my mom to... compile all of that together, untouched in terms of the Vietnamese version.

It was how he wrote it, it was how it was published. At the same time and figuring, you know, let's... get it translated over to the English version.

And so that's why we've got both English and Vietnamese, to... not only honor my dad's wishes of putting a complete book together...

...but it was his goal of  leaving behind his own legacy for his grandkids and their grandkids to know how their family history came about.  

[00:36:46] Steve W: I've read the book, 'The Last Flight Out', and what I like most was that it's very authentic. Some of the writing's got a few grammatical quirks in it. That's because it's exactly what Miki's father wrote.

[00:37:00] Aside from the main story that we've been talking about today, there are stories of comraderie, of survival, of love, but most of all, the book is a story about people. It's a wonderful read. Check out the show notes.

Throughout the families ordeal in the seventies and the new life they've carved out for themselves in Seattle since then, they've never forgotten the fact that none of it would be possible without the selfless bravery and humanity of Captain Paul Jacobs and the crew of the USS Kirk.  

In praise of the USS Kirk

[00:37:43] Miki: The captain could have just stuck with protocol and... shooed people away, right? He had every right to shoo people away. He could have done that, but he didn't. Big heart, big compassion.

Broke protocol. We see pictures of him as a leader, pushing [00:38:00] many of the smaller helicopters that landed over the side. He was a man that led by example. Driven by his heart, led by example.

USS Kirk Captain Paul Jacobs

And so, an incredible human being to not only help our family, help my dad, but many of the other... South Vietnamese pilots that did the same thing, try to find help and  him and his crew just being there at the right time. One human to the next, helping each other out.

 And to close the loop on that moment in '75 and to actually shake the hand of Captain Paul Jacobs and many of the other crew members that day was just full circle for us.

A beautiful, beautiful moment.

 [00:39:00]