Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Night Flight From Saigon
    Night Flight From Saigon
    Night Flight From Saigon
    Ebook69 pages50 minutes

    Night Flight From Saigon

    By Robert Yeoman

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    It is late April 1975 on the eve of the fall of Saigon. Pagoda Airlines, a small struggling commercial airline based in Bangkok, Thailand, is approached by the mysterious Bill Reilly. Reilly wants to lease a plane and crew for a dangerous mission involving the evacuation of at risk Vietnamese refugees from Saigon to Guam.

    Even though Saigon is surrounded by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces, and will likely fall within a matter of hours, Pagoda's precarious financial condition compels the airline to undertake the perilous operation.

    For the mission to succeed, it must be conducted with military precision and boldness. A daunting task for a civilian aircraft and crew.

    |Join the intrepid crew members as they attempt to overcome the challenges which inevitably arise.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRobert Yeoman
    Release dateSep 26, 2016
    ISBN9781370274079
    Night Flight From Saigon

    Related to Night Flight From Saigon

    Related ebooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Paratrooper Rebellion

      Feb 21, 2023

      Paratrooper Rebellion
      11 min read

    • Article

      Leather Lover

      Aug 22, 2023

      Leather Lover
      4 min read

    • Article

      Escaping Saigon

      Oct 1, 2021

      Escaping Saigon
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Jag File

      Dec 4, 2020

      Throughout history, tragic events are followed by promises to never forget the victims. Presidential proclamations, songs, movies, posters, and anniversary celebrations all help us to keep those who died alive in our nation’s collective memory. For e

      5 min read

    • Article

      War Controversies

      Oct 6, 2020

      War Controversies
      5 min read

    • Article

      Innocent Suspects

      Feb 26, 2020

      Innocent Suspects
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Strategic Victory?

      Nov 28, 2019

      A Strategic Victory?
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Tet Offensive

      Aug 4, 2022

      The Tet Offensive
      7 min read

    • Article

      Why Vietnam's Online Propagandists Are Disowning Ke Huy Quan's Oscar Win

      Mar 25, 2023

      Ke Huy Quan's Oscar win at the 95th Academy Awards on March 12 for his supporting role in Everything Everywhere All At Once set Vietnamese media abuzz. News headlines effusively highlighted this unprecedented triumph for a Vietnamese-American actor.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Clarence Page: With Afghanistan In The Rearview Mirror, Have We Learned The Lessons Of Vietnam This Time?

      Aug 31, 2021

      Watching the last American military plane go wheels up and out of the Afghanistan War reminded me of an old saying: History often repeats itself, but a lot of us would rather not pay attention. On July 8, when President Joe Biden was defending his de

      3 min read

    • Article

      Days of Infamy

      Nov 1, 2022

      Days of Infamy
      12 min read

    • Article

      Analysing The Past Actions Of The British Army Is Key To Understanding Its Future

      Mar 8, 2021

      In March 2006, a colleague and I were leaving Helmand for Kabul having spent time there covering the impending arrival of the British forces – who were meant to be a mission not lasting more than two years. “Are you guys going to the British embassy

      7 min read

    • Article

      Remembering Rabaul

      Apr 11, 2023

      Remembering Rabaul
      4 min read

    • Article

      Falklands Lessons

      Jul 2, 2019

      Falklands Lessons
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Night Flight From Saigon

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Night Flight From Saigon - Robert Yeoman

      NIGHT FLIGHT FROM SAIGON

      by

      William and Robert Yeoman

      Copyright © 2016 William and Robert Yeoman

      All rights reserved.

      Distributed by Smashwords

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Ebook formatting by www.ebooklaunch.com

      Table of Contents

      Prologue

      Spook Airlines

      Uncle Sam Comes to Call

      Rallying the Troops

      The Crew Assembles

      Strange Encounter

      Into the Night

      What Can Go Wrong

      East to Guam

      The Night Visitor

      Guam

      Mission Accomplished

      Epilogue

      Thanks and Thanks, and Ever Thanks-Twelfth Night

      Prologue

      In the courtyard of the United States embassy in Saigon stood a tamarind tree.

      Eden

      See in your mind’s eye, the tiny coral island of Guam lying in the turquoise vastness of the western Pacific Ocean. East to south west of the island, the ocean floor drops sharply into the crescent shaped abyss, which is the Marianas Trench. The deepest part of the Trench, called Challenger Deep, is 36,000 feet. There is no deeper ocean on earth. Guam and its sister islands, known as the Marianas Chain, are the peaks of a range of almost submerged volcanic mountains, the offspring of the violent coupling of the Mariana and Pacific tectonic plates.

      This U.S. territory is nirvana for those seeking renewal of body and spirit. Listen to the distant boom of ocean waves breaking over coral reefs. Hear the foamy hiss of spent waves on warm white sands erasing your footprints and the corrosive stress of life.

      Eden Disturbed

      In late April 1975, Eden was disturbed by the roar of aircraft engines, as an armada of planes descended on Guam, disembarking bewildered South Vietnamese refugees fleeing invading North Vietnamese forces.

      The program for the removal of South Vietnamese refugees for resettlement in the U.S. became known as Operation New Life.

      Read now the story of one plane, one crew, and one flight of refugees during this operation.

      Paris Peace Conference

      At the Paris Peace Conference in 1973, an agreement was reached whereby U.S. forces, after a protracted war of 20 years, were withdrawn from South Vietnam. In return, North and South Vietnam agreed that the South Vietnamese people would decide their political future for themselves, through genuinely free and democratic general elections under international supervision, and furthermore, that the reunification of Vietnam would be carried out step by step by peaceful means. Curiously, while the U.S. troops were withdrawn from South Vietnam, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) was not required to withdraw from areas it occupied in South Vietnam.

      The agreement was a labyrinth of ambiguity and inconsistency, accompanied by comfort letters and verbal side agreements. In one such comfort letter, in order to obtain South Vietnam's agreement to the Peace Accord, U.S. President Richard Nixon assured President Thieu of South Vietnam, that the United States would take swift and severe retaliatory action and would respond with full force, if the terms of the Paris Peace Accord were violated by North Vietnam. At the end of the day, the only material effect of the agreement was the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Vietnam.

      While Nixon remained in office, an uneasy peace prevailed, as the North Vietnamese feared that he would resume the bombing of North Vietnam if further incursions were made into the south. Once Nixon was driven from office in August 1974, after the Watergate affair, as far as North Vietnam was concerned, a major obstacle to the seizure of the remainder of South Vietnam had been removed. The North Vietnamese leadership correctly believed that the U.S. public was exhausted after the protracted war which had claimed the lives of 58,000 of its forces, and would not retaliate if South Vietnam were invaded.

      On March 10, 1975, units of the NVA poured across

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1