10 Weirdest Cold War Stories You Probably Haven't Heard
8. The Cost Of Life
It is April 1975, the North Vietnamese are surging into South Vietnam and the war is clearly lost. The US Navy enacts Operation Frequent Wind, which was the plan to evacuate over 7,000 US personnel and Vietnamese allies before the Viet Cong reach Saigon. Yet there is one story from this tale that will warm your heart more than any other.
Towards the end of the operation, with many thousands already rescued from the city, a small plane approaches the aircraft carrier USS Midway. As it flies over, something drops from the plane. A bomb? No, a brick wrapped in a message! The message read, “Can you move these helicopters to the other side, I can land on your runway, I can fly 1 hour more, we have enough time to move. Please rescue me. Major Buang, Wife and 5 children.”
The pilot was a South Vietnamese army officer, desperately trying to save his family. At seeing this, and in a display befitting the essence of humanity, the captain of the carrier ordered his men to push over $10m worth of helicopters into the South China Sea to allow Buang to land on the deck.