richard marvin us navy captain vietnam war

Secret Plan To Rescue More Than Just Ships 'I said, 'I am equally unaccustomed, sir, to coming aboard strange ships in the middle of the night and giving you orders. 'Commodore Roane said something like, 'Young man, I'm not used to having strange civilians come aboard my ship in the middle of the night and give me orders,' ' Armitage recalls. He was aboard the USS Blue Ridge, the lead ship of the Navy's 7th Fleet.Īrmitage recalls coming aboard the ship and quickly being escorted to the officer's mess where he met with Jacobs and Commodore Donald Roane, commander of the flotilla of Navy destroyers. Donald Whitmire, commander of the evacuation mission - Operation Frequent Wind. Paul Jacobs, the captain, received the directive from Adm. That night, the captain of a small destroyer escort, the USS Kirk, got a mysterious order to head back to Vietnam. Now those Navy ships were steaming away from Vietnam. Navy aircraft carriers waiting off the coast. Just hours before, the last Americans had been evacuated, rescued and flown on Marine helicopters to U.S. Tanks crashed through the gates of the presidential palace and soldiers hoisted the yellow and red flag of the Viet Cong.

On April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese troops entered the deserted streets of Saigon. The Kirk's final mission at the end of the Vietnam War was to bring the remnants of the South's navy to safety in the Philippines.

The South Vietnamese fleet follows the USS Kirk to Subic Bay in the Philippines.

Richard marvin us navy captain vietnam war