groveChuck
U-matic Member
The USS Kirk: Valor At The Vietnam War's End
There are iconic, indelible images of Vietnam, among them, US helicopters evacuating Americans and fortunate South Vietnamese from the roof of the US Embassy as Saigon fell.
There's another, less-known (unknown to the general public) story.
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=129484369&m=129558681
There are iconic, indelible images of Vietnam, among them, US helicopters evacuating Americans and fortunate South Vietnamese from the roof of the US Embassy as Saigon fell.
There's another, less-known (unknown to the general public) story.
That of the USS Kirk, and other US ships, rescuing thousands of desperate people aboard South Vietnamese helicopters in the largest US Navy rescue in history- and the story was all but unknown to those outside the Navy.
The Kirk was a destroyer escort, a relatively small naval ship operating as a lookout for North Vietnamese fighter jets.
In this incredible NPR story, the captain of the Kirk (with a landing deck smaller than a tennis court), hearing choppers are crashing into the ocean, radios the pilots and offers his ship as a safe place to land as the choppers are running out of fuel, unable to make it to the larger aircraft carriers.
Problem is, the S Vietnamese pilots are Army pilots, and have never landed on a ship, much less one as small as the Kirk.
This radio story includes audio cassettes (remember them?), previously unheard, of a Kirk crew member, as he describes the rescue to his wife back home.
It's an incredibly gripping (babies being dropped from hovering helos) 12 minute story, very well done, and worth checking out.
The Kirk was a destroyer escort, a relatively small naval ship operating as a lookout for North Vietnamese fighter jets.
In this incredible NPR story, the captain of the Kirk (with a landing deck smaller than a tennis court), hearing choppers are crashing into the ocean, radios the pilots and offers his ship as a safe place to land as the choppers are running out of fuel, unable to make it to the larger aircraft carriers.
Problem is, the S Vietnamese pilots are Army pilots, and have never landed on a ship, much less one as small as the Kirk.
This radio story includes audio cassettes (remember them?), previously unheard, of a Kirk crew member, as he describes the rescue to his wife back home.
It's an incredibly gripping (babies being dropped from hovering helos) 12 minute story, very well done, and worth checking out.
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=129484369&m=129558681