On April 29, 1975, communist Vietnamese forces of the People’s Army of Vietnam and the Viet Cong began a final attack on the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon. Nearly 100 aircraft were destroyed on the flight line of Tan Son Nhut Air Base. Just one airworthy aircraft remained: a C-130A Hercules, tail number 56-0518.
Realizing that the C-130 was the last way out of the country, Maj. Phuong, a South Vietnamese instructor pilot ordered his crew to prep the aircraft to evacuate civilians. A total of 452 people crammed into the cargo plane which typically has a passenger capacity of 92; 32 people squeezed into the cockpit alone. Escaping the Fall of Saigon, the Vietnamese refugees flew to Thailand.
One of those refugees was seven-year-old Tammy Ha. Ha’s mother took her and six of her siblings aboard the C-130 while her father remained in Vietnam with her four remaining siblings. Even then, the family had to abandon all of their personal belongings when they fled the country. They eventually made their way to Houston, Texas and the family was reunited in 1985.
When Ha’s son, Brandon Ong, learned of his family’s story, he developed an interest in the U.S. Air Force. “When my mom told me she flew out of Vietnam in an Air Force plane and the history and story behind it – I got really interested in planes,” Ong said in an Air Force news story. “I’ve always loved history, so familiarizing myself with my family background really meant a lot. When my mom said a C-130 was the aircraft she flew out of Vietnam on, I knew that was the plane I wanted to work on.”
Ong enlisted as a Mobility Air Forces integrated instrument and flight control systems specialist. He was assigned to Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas and achieved his goal of working on the C-130J Super Hercules. Incredibly, the C-130 on display in front of the base’s main gate is tail number 56-0518: the last C-130 out of Vietnam.
”Finding out that the plane in front of the base’s main gate was the one that saved my mom means a lot,” Ong said. “It’s fate that it’s here and I am working in the same aircraft. This was an opportunity for me to give back to the United States. Without them and the C-130, I probably wouldn’t be here.”