It’s the morning of April 30, 1975, and a lone CH-46 Sea Knight responding to a radio call lands on the rooftop the US Embassy in Saigon. At 7:53am, it lifts off with the remainder of the embassy’s Marine detachment, and the pilot announces over the radio; “Flight command, this is 'Swift 2-2, the last eleven are out!” And so ends America’s involvement in the Vietnam War.
The rooftop helipad is scratchbuilt as best as I could duplicate it from the US Embassy.
As always all comments and critiques are greatly appreciated.
Sure is an important piece of history of the Vietnam War. Can you tell me more about the helipad? How did you research the markings, what do they mean?
Hey Pawel, glad you like it. As for the helipad, it was scratchbuilt mostly with bass wood and square wood dowels. I was able to find a picture of American visitors to the abandoned embassy rooftop, years after the war, and saw the helo landing markings but it seems ‘flickr’ is not able to support that format for posting here. Here is a picture of the Marines on the roof from the previous day.
I’m posting 3 more pics of the other side of the chopper and helipad. I’m hoping that the photo of the embassy rooftop comes through. That picture was taken on Dec. 1994, 19 1/2yrs. after the war ended.
