Page 7 - Aerotech News and Review, December 17, 2021

MIDWAY, from 6
dangerous hours on board the aircraft carrier USS Midway.
Operation Frequent Wind also marked the end of a war that ultimately cost the lives of over 57,000 U.S. ser- vice members.
It did directly save the lives of 3,073 evacuees. And as V ern Jumper quietly points out, without the loss any human life taken aboard.
That human salvation did come at a price, however. It was pointed out to Mr. Jumper that he might be required to reimburse the government for having
thrown over the side about $10 million worth of perfectly good helicopters. He never got a bill. And in his defense, the record shows he was still aboard Mid- way when she later sailed into Thailand to take aboard a capacity load of 101 fixed-wing military aircraft that other- wise would have been lost to Cambo- dian communists.
Now, those are things to tell your grandchildren. V ern and his wife have eight grandkids and 3 great-grandchil- dren.
In all, some 45 Huey and 3 larg-
er Chinook helicopters landed on the Midway, though some had to be pushed overboard to make
room for newer arrivals.
Visitors to the Midway who
want to meet this American hero
should plan to go aboard on a Friday when he’s volunteering near the stern on the flight deck.
Evacuees from the DAO Compound are offloaded onto the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Midway, CVA-41, during the evacuation of South Vietnam, known as Operation Frequent Wind, in April 1975.
Visitors to the USS Midway hangar deck examine the Operation Frequent Wind exhibit beneath a light observation aircraft of the type a Vietnamese pilot landed on the aircraft carrier with his wife and four children in evacuating South Vietnam in 1975.
Navy photograph
Photograph by Larry Grooms
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