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Only the meanest catchlast plane fromDaNangBy PAUL VOGLEDA NANG, South Vietnam (UPI) — Only the fastest, the strongest and the meanest got out on what may be the last refugee plane from Communist-threatened Da Nang Saturday.I saw a South Vietnamese soldier kick an old woman in the face to get aboard.In the movies somebody would have shot the soldier and helped the old lady on the plane. But this was no movie— he flew and the old lady tumbled down the tarmac, her fingers clawing toward the plane that was already rolling.People fought one another and died trying to get aboard. Others fell thousands of feet to their deaths in the sea because even desperation could no longer keep their fingers welded to the undercarriage.It was a flight out of hell and only a good tough American pilot and a lot of prayers got us back to Saigon’s Tan Son Nhut airbase alive—with the Boeing 727’s flaps jammed and the wheels fully extended.It all started simply enough. I asked World Airways Vice President Charles Patterson if he had anything going to Da Nang. He said, “Get on that truck and you’ve got yourself a ride.*’It was a ride I’ll never forget.World Airways President Ed Daley was aboard. He was angry and tired. Daley said he had been up all night arguing with American and VietnameseIt seemed peaceful enough as we touched down at the airport, 370 miles northeast of Saigon.More than a thousand people had been waiting around a Quonset hut several hundred yards away from where we touched down.Suddenly it was a mob in motion—they roared across the tarmac on motorbikes, jeeps, scooters and on legs speeded by sheer desperation and panic.Daley and I stood near the bottom of the 727’s tailramp. Daley held out his arms while I shouted in Vietnamese, “One at a time—one at a time. There’s room for everybody.”There wasn’t room for everybody and everybody knewdamn well there wasn’t.Daley and I were knocked aside and backward.If Daley thought he’d get some women and children out of Da Nang he was wTong. The plane was jammed in an instant with troops of the 1st Division’s meanest unit, the Hac Bao (Black Panthers).They literally ripped the clothes right off Daley along with some of his skin. A BritishThey had gone from humans to animals and now they were vegetables.In the cockpit we wrapped the weapons and ammo in electric tape.We flew down the coast, the backup plane behind us all the way. Healy circled Phan Rang airbase 165 miles northeast of Saigon, hoping to put down for an emergency landing.Lien Huong served as interpreter on the backup plane, radioing Phan Rang control tower that our 727 had to land there in an emergency. The reply came back that there was no firefighting equipment at Phan Rang so Healy aimed the plane for Tan Son Nhut.I heard Healy on the radio telling Tan Son Nhut, “I’ve got control problems.” The backup plane was shepherding us in. Huong told me later when we touched down safe the pilot and cabin crew on his plane pulled off their headphones, some of them crossed themselves, and all thanked God for a small miracle delivered this Easterweekend.When we touched down thetelevision cameraman who flew troops who had stormed us wereup with us made the mistake of offloaded and put under arrest,getting off the plane when we They deserved it.landed to shoot the loading. HeThe mangled body of onecould not get back aboard in the soldier, M16 rifle still strappedpandemonium so he threw his to his shoulder, was retrievedcamera with its precious film from the undercarriage. He gotinto the closing door and stood there and watched us take off.We heard later that an Air America helicopter picked himhis ride to Saigon but being dead in Saigon is just the same as being dead in Da Nang.Over a score of others cameofficials for permission to fly up and carried him to safety, out of the baggage compart-into besieged Da Nang to get more refugees out.Daley finally said to hell with paperwork, clearances and caution and we were on our way.As we started rolling, insanity gripped those who had missed their chance. Governmenton us. handgone now ry lastsmiddle. Police kept about 50 spectators from interfering with the capture.Revivalto startA week-long revival will start Monday night at the Ferris Avenue Baptist Church, it was announced Saturday by the Rev. Herman Rice, pastor.Evangelist for the event will be Dr. Tom Urrey, professor ofNew Testament at Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth. He had pastored churches in Arkansas and Texas before excepting his present position with theSeminary.The revival will continue through Sunday, April 6. Services will start at 7:30 p.m.Don Collins, local minister of music, will be in charge of the music.The nursery will be open for each service. The public is invited.Dr. Urrey, native of Hope, Ark., is a member of thetroops opened fire Somebody lobbed a grenade toward the wing. The explosion jammed the flaps full open and the undercarriage in full extension.Communist rockets began exploding at a distance.Our pilot, Ken Healy, 52, of Oakland, Calif., slammed the throttles wide open and lurched into the air from the taxiway. There was no way we could have survived the gunfire and got onto the main runway.A backup 727 had flown behind us but had been ordered not to land when the panic broke out. The pilot radioed he could see the legs of people hanging down from the undercarriage of our plane.UPI photographer Lien Huong,who w’as in the cockpit of that backup plane, saw at least one person lose his grip on life and plummet into the South China Sea below.There were 266 or more people jammed into the cabin of the little 727 limping dcwr. the coast.Only two women and one baby among them. The rest were soldiers, toughest of the tough, meanest of the mean. They proved it Saturday. They didn’t talk to each other or us. They looked at the floor.I saw one of them had a clip of ammunition and asked him to give it to me. He handed it over. As I walked up the aisle other soldiers started loading my arms with clips of ammunition, pistols, hand grenades. They didn’t need them anymore. There was no more fight leftment, cold but alive. Somebody told me that four others crawled out of the wheel wells alive. One died.The last plane from Da Nang was one hell of a ride. For me. For Ed Daley. For Ken Healy. For the Black Panthers. And for two women and a baby.But the face that remains is that of the old woman lying flat on the tarmac seeing hope, seeing life itself, just at the end of her fingertips and rolling the other way.TEXASTALKLoyd WnghtQ: \s far as feed and feed grains are concerned, what are the differences between con* cenlrates and roughages?A: Fiber content and theamount of nutrient which is digestible K the animal arc the basic criteria tor separating these classes.CONCENTRATES—are feedsgenerally high in nutrients and low in fiber content. \ irtuallv all grains arc in this class, as well as seseral b\-products including linseed meal, cottonseed meal, hominy feed and wheat bran Mans of the concentrates have a high protein content, although this is not a prerequisite of the class.R O UGH AGES—a re high in fiber and low in nutrients. Feeds other than the grains are generally classed as roughage 1 hese include: straw, silage.has and a \arietv of coarse bv-• ” ■ ■ *products of the plants utilized in feed grain production.4University Baptist Church in in the Black Panthers this day.ellis county farm bureau
Newspaper Details
Waxahachie Daily Light
Waxahachie, Texas, US
Sun, Mar 30, 1975
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Tim G.
USA 19 Jul 2019
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Waxahachie Daily Light
