Iowa Marine Veteran shares memories of Vietnam evacuation
URBANDALE, Iowa — John Morgan grew up a military kid, his Dad was in the military and they moved around a lot. When he grew up, the last thing he wanted to be was military.
Morgan was able to defer military service until after college. The draft operated on a number system. Since John had a low number in the draft, it made sense for him to enlist in the military. He joined the Marines and became a helicopter pilot.
'There was a tremendous amount of anger and protest against the war in Vietnam and so, I didn't want to go, but I had to,' Morgan said.
After flight training, he was stationed aboard the USS Okinawa in the South China Sea. He flew a helicopter and ferried people around from ship to land and back.
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His first evacuation flight came on April 12, 1975 when they flew to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
'We saved around 300 or 350 people,' said Morgan. 'They had huge grounds there like huge soccer fields and so we could land three helicopters on those soccer fields at the same time.'
The mission to Saigon on April 29 was a little more complex. The mission was ready to launch around 6 a.m., but there was a hold up, a diplomat had not okayed the rescue mission. So, they waited until around noon and the choppers arrived in Saigon in mid-afternoon.
'We did land once at the U.S. Embassy, but our helicopter was so large, before we could land in the Embassy they had to have a crew of engineers go there and blow up a couple of trees,' said Morgan. They made multiple landings at another site in Saigon.
Morgan experienced rifle fire on his chopper when going to Saigon on multiple trips. The shooters were too far away to hit the aircraft. Before the first rescue mission to Cambodia, he was nervous about maybe never seeing his two daughters again.
'The part that I'm most proud of right now is that when I was in the Marine Corps my operational missions had to do with saving people,' said Morgan. 'We were bringing people back to our country to, helping them out get out of harms way.'
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