MARINE CORPS AIR STATION MIRAMAR, Calif. -- The month of April marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of Vietnam to communist forces and the evacuation of the American embassy in Saigon. For one of Miramar's own, this bitter ending remains a significant personal experience occasionally overlooked in Marine Corps lore.

The tragic year was 1975. Many Americans and Vietnamese, now disillusioned and bereft of the idealistic dreams of democracy, knew the war against communist aggression in Southeast Asia was already lost.

"Most of us had already been to Vietnam more than once," said retired Sgt. Maj. Michael G. Zacker, a San Diego native who now works as a volunteer at Miramar's Flying Leatherneck Historical Foundation and Aviation Museum. "My squadron, (Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron) 463 was stationed in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, at the time with our CH-53Ds that had returned from Vietnam a few years before."

Sitting in Hawaii, they did not expect to receive orders. Zacker and the rest of HMH-463 had recently served off the coast of Vietnam during Operation End Sweep to help clear out mines near Haiphong. However, one Friday morning, Zacker and his Marines came in to work and were told that they would be leaving to participate in the evacuations of Vietnam.

"We went aboard the USS Hancock that had a whole carrier air wing of fixed-wing strike aircraft," recalled Zacker, who served as an avionics Marine, crew chief and gunner with HMH-463. "The Hancock had A-4s and F-4 Phantoms on board, and we had to load our 53s, which definitely congested things. We sailed across the Pacific to Subic Bay in the Philippines, where all the fixed-wing aircraft were flown off the ship and stayed during the evacuations. This essentially turned the aircraft carrier into an LPH amphibious assault ship. We also picked up a search and rescue detachment, plus some CH-46s from Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 164, and off we went to Vietnam."

The USS Hancock then sailed for the southern tip of Vietnam and the western coast of Cambodia.

For a few days the ship cruised around before Zacker and his fellow Marines were told they were going to participate in the evacuation of Phnom Penh, code-named Operation Eagle Pull.

"There were still U.S. advisors in there, in addition to the embassy staff and other folks from U.S. aid and government organizations, although the Cambodian government had collapsed," said Zacker. "Our evacuation took place on a soccer pitch with what looked like condominiums along the side. It was an ideal landing zone. The flight was long as we had internal, fiberglass box fuel tanks. I think it was 300 gallons of fuel each that allowed us to extend our range. With the four-man crew and these range extension tanks there wasn't a whole lot of room left for troops."

The first squadron had dropped off a ground security force - not a company, but a few platoons - which set up a perimeter to keep the communists at bay while a second squadron came in to load up with evacuees.

"I think that was HMH-462," recalled then Gunnery Sgt. Michael G. Zacker. "Then our squadron, HMH-463, flew in empty, other than the crew, with the mission to pull out the ground security force."

They were about half finished with the troops closing in on the backs of the aircraft - there were about four in the zone at the time - when all of a sudden mortar rounds started crunching in from the housing complex.

"Chunks were falling all around us," said Zacker. "The grunts - God bless 'em - stopped coming aboard and ran back out like they were going to go after the guys launching the mortars. They only had small arms - the biggest thing they had were M-60 machineguns - and they were going to engage them. So we yelled 'No dammit, get back. We gotta get out of here!', and eventually we got them turned around except for the combat camera guy that we had with us."

The Marine combat photographer was Gunnery Sgt. Donnie Shearer, assigned to HMH-463. He had flown on Zacker's aircraft and was one of his buddies. Shearer would later receive the Military News Photographer Award for the year for his 'End of an Era' coverage of the evacuations.

"He was actually on the ground taking pictures of the grunts getting on the aircraft when we lifted off," remembered Zacker. "More mortars came in, and here's Donnie taking photos. I looked down and saw him and told the pilot 'you're not going to believe this, but we have to get back down to get him.' So we went back, picked him up. The pilot later told him that if it weren't for (Zacker) he might have been left behind."

Later, with many evacuees aboard, the Hancock left for Singapore to offload the passengers. Just as the Sailors and Marines had barely stepped off deck for a liberty call, the Hancock raced back to the coast of Vietnam.

The Marines and Sailors on the Hancock were told that the code name for the evacuation of Saigon would be Operation Frequent Wind. The warning order given over the ship's intercom system was "Deep Purple."

"For a few days we heard nothing but 'Deep Purple' at like 2 a.m.," recalled Zacker. "We heard 'Deep Purple,' and we all rolled out of the rack to work on the aircraft. My job was to grab two .50 caliber machineguns, six cans of ammo and flares, and get the aircraft armed and ready to go. Other Marines were busy doing their jobs. We had to have 100 percent preparedness for all the aircraft we had despite difficulties with parts, etc., so we were ready to launch. Later during the day it became painfully obvious that we were not going, and they stood us down. So we had to unload and de-arm all the aircraft, which wasn't easy since the armory was located all the way down on the bottom of the ship!"


Finally on April 29, 1975, "Deep Purple" was sounded for the last time and Operation Frequent Wind began.

"At 1:30 p.m. that day I was in the lead aircraft, YH-02, of three Marine CH-53Ds that launched and went over to the USS Midway, where we landed and topped off fuel," said Zacker. "I had a huge battle-axe with me that I had used during a Halloween scare house back in Hawaii. As we launched from the Midway, I held the battle-axe aloft out the crew door and over the noise of what by then were 12 CH-53s on the deck-nine Air Force HH-53s had joined up with us, and you could still hear the roars of  'Yeah!' from everyone on deck. It was awesome."

Zacker said the Marine CH-53s led the flight of Air Force 53s because they did not know how to fly combat evacuations the way the Marines did. He and his fellow Marines had maps with locations of various friendly units below who were not totally overrun, such as the (Army Republic of Vietnam) Marines, in the event that they were shot down.

Dodging North Vietnamese Army surface-to-air missiles, Marine helicopter squadrons put their flying skills to the test as they flew in and out of Saigon.

"We were going in at 5,000 feet which was our approach altitude, through the Mekong Delta and over Saigon," said Zacker whose squadron flew the first CH-53Ds in Vietnam nine years before. "Then we did a 'death spiral' down into the LZ to reduce the opportunity to be acquired by enemy guns. By the time we made our third trip in, night fell. Flying 70 miles, without night vision gear, over the water and then over unknown terrain was pretty challenging."

Central Intelligence Agency operatives assembled evacuees and their carry-on bags into 30-man sticks for the loads HMH-463 picked up in the Defense Attaché Office compound.

"That was a standard load for our CH-46s, which were not used because they were not efficient," Zacker said. "Our 53s were picking up 60 (evacuees). On our second load we took on three sticks since we had no problem with 60, so then we had 90 aboard. On the third flight we still had room on the ramp, and so we waved the CIA guy to have him send another stick. With a six-man crew and about 120 passengers we left the DAO compound just east of Saigon for the Hancock at sea."

The Marines of HMH-463 actually had very few Americans aboard, according to Zacker. Most were Vietnamese who were American dependents or had been working for the U.S. government, supporting operations in Vietnam in different capacities, as well as Vietnamese military.
Flying for 20 hours straight - with sandwiches, water and 'no-doze' pills from Navy corpsmen to help them stay awake - Zacker and the rest of HMH-463 accomplished their mission to help evacuate the last vestige of American military forces and supporters from Vietnam. The largest helicopter evacuation, amidst a panic-stricken exodus of South Vietnamese, was history.

"With the fall of Saigon, communist forces had taken all the major cities in Vietnam, and we knew it was totally over," Zacker reflected.

"On our very first load, to look into the belly of the aircraft, and look into the eyes of all these Vietnamese who had supported the U.S., and our efforts to give them the freedom that they desired, to watch them look out the aircraft as we lifted out of there over their capital city Saigon, and see their country slip away knowing they would never return - that hit me real hard. I knew right then that it wasn't because we the Marines let them down, it was because people in our government had caved in to the anti-war movement."