Vietnam War Episodes
The Last Flight Out
29/30 April 1975 - Vietnam War: The fall of Saigon - 50 years ago today
How would you react if you had commandeered a Chinook helicopter and were flying over the South China Sea with little fuel, nowhere to land, your wife and children were on board and you're being hounded by North Vietnamese determined to bring you down?
That's the situation that confronted Ba Van Nguyen in the last 24 hours of the fall of Saigon on 29 April 1975. Ba's son Miki was in that Chinook…
Vietnam War: Helicopters and History
It's 1968. The Vietnam War is at its fiercest. Robin Bartlett is a platoon leader with the U.S. 1st Air Cavalry Division. Robin’s platoon is deployed on regular helicopter combat assaults, sometimes twice a day. Getting into the Landing Zone is perilous - so is getting out. Robin recounts the day when his helicopter had ascended to 1500 feet, received gunfire and then moments later, the engine cut out. What followed was pure terror.
It was a pleasure to welcome Robin back after …
Donut Dollies
During the Vietnam War, a group of courageous women embarked on an extraordinary mission to uplift the spirits of American troops stationed far away from their loved ones. The Donut Dollies. With unwavering bravery, they ventured into war zones armed only with warm smiles. Their story often goes unheard, but not for my guest today, Penni Evans, who left college at the end of December 1969 to find herself in Vietnam by the March of 1970. She was 22.
Penni had so many stories to tell, …
Vietnam War: The Trail
The story of the Vietnam War has been told many times in many different ways. But how often have you heard what it was like on the ground for infantry soldiers walking The Trail - that daily grind of cutting through the jungle in pursuit of the enemy? The unbearable heat, leeches, C-rations, booby traps, ambushes and counter-ambushes. It’s a gripping and terrifying story which my guest Robin, a Vietnam Veteran, tells with passion and surprising humour. It’s a story that must be told over and…