The Fall of Saigon: The Last Commercial Flight Out
Six days before the end of the Vietnam War, a daring and dramatic rescue mission flew into Saigon. On board the empty Pan Am 747, a handful of women volunteered to save others.
CBS News Bay Area recently met up with them.
North of San Francisco, overlooking Tomales Bay, four women—Pamela B. Taylor, Sioux Mattson-Krings, Laura Lee Gillespie and Thieu "Tra" Duong Iwafuchi—gathered to remember.
"We shared an adventure together that we'll never forget," Taylor said.
Fifty years ago, they worked for Pan Am Airways as stewardesses.
On April 24, 1975, they all volunteered for an extremely dangerous mission.
"There wasn't any question. We were going to go in and do what we could do to help other people. We were very much concerned," Taylor said.
Before the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, the situation in South Vietnam was tense and chaotic. North Vietnamese troops were closing in on the capital.
The U.S. FAA had banned all commercial flights in and out of Vietnam.
But Pan Am got special permission for one final journey. On April 24, 1975, a very small crew would travel onboard an empty 747 jumbo jet, called the "Clipper Unity."
"In the middle of the night, Pan 'Ops' called me and asked me if I would volunteer to go to Saigon on a rescue mission and I said 'Yes,'" Gillespie said.
The goal was to evacuate Pan Am's Vietnamese employees and families. Station manager Al Topping rushed through the paperwork by "adopting" them all.
"They were working for an American company and their lives would have all been in danger if they'd stayed," Matson-Krings said.
The crew was willing to cram even more onboard, including Duong-Iwafuchi's four teenage sisters.
"My sisters, of course, so scared," Duong-Iwafuchi said.
On the flight, the women packed extra uniforms and wigs. At the SFO Museum, archivist Sam Scott showed CBS News Bay Area what that uniform looked like. It was a vintage powder-blue garment designed by Edith Head that is now part of the collection.
The plan was to dress each sister as a Pan Am stewardess.
Then, one by one, the disguised teens drove out to the plane, passing soldiers armed with machine guns.
"I was so happy that I could get them out. Without my help, I don't think they had a way of getting out of the country," Duong-Iwafuchi said.
The stewardesses also passed around pillowcases, collecting Vietnamese money from the passengers. They used the money to buy more "visas" from the armed guards surrounding the plane, who then allowed more Vietnamese to climb onboard.
The women boarded nearly 100 more passengers than the Jumbo Jet was built to hold. No one was allowed to bring on any suitcases.
All in all, 463 refugees came on board.
"It was packed. Every, every inch," Gillespie said.
When the 747 took off, there were no cheers or celebrations.
"We knew that the airport was surrounded," Gillepsie said.
"What I recall was the deafening silence," Mattson-Krings said.
"People were crying, we were crying. We were sad that they had to leave that way," Taylor said.
All credit to their pilot, the late Captain Bob Berg from San Mateo County, as being the real hero.
"He told us when we got on the ground that he would not leave anyone behind. That he would turn the red flashing light on and that meant to get back to the airplane as quickly as possible," Taylor said.
"He was such a treasure, and a man filled with humility and bravery and courage," Mattson-Krings said.
There are all qualities shared by these women today and 50 years ago on the flight to freedom.
To learn more, visit Pan Am Historical Foundation and SFO Museum.
