You’ve Got a Cargo Plane Full of Vietnamese Orphans Escaping from Saigon

At 23,000 Feet You Lose Half the Hydraulic Systems and Most of the Flight Controls

Game Over? Not with Pilot Bud Traynor and His Crew in Charge

Saving the Kids: The Operation Babylift Plane Crash in the Vietnam War

Too often U.S. military people are seen only in their necessary roles of deterring and attacking enemy forces. That’s a true but partial picture. Often invisible are the missions of mercy that they undertake, such as the Berlin Airlift during the early Cold War and Operation Babylift at the end of Vietnam War, a little-known but largely successful attempt to airlift as many Vietnamese orphans as possible from Saigon as it was falling.

But the first flight out suffered a disastrous series of mechanical failures at high altitude, ones so severe that it seemed inevitable that all of the children aboard would die along with the crew.

Miraculously they didn’t; the majority survived almost certain death, thanks to the incredible teamwork, skill, and ingenuity of the crew. This is their story, told by the C-5A’s pilot, Col. Bud Traynor (USAF Ret.)

Here’s Bud’s summary of what he’ll tell us about on August 8th:

I’d like to talk about a routine mission and how it can suddenly turn into something much more. We knew we were carrying a load of desperately-needed howitzers…Little did we know that while we were asleep in the Philippines, President Ford had directed that C-5 aircraft would be used to evacuate orphans out of Saigon…That decision began a remarkable string of events that really demonstrated the importance of crew training and coordination – wherever that training may have come from, including from my father!

Had there been no mechanical failure, this first BABYLIFT mission surely would have been relegated to the annals of obscurity – the Air Force doing its job. But that mechanical failure precipitated a chain of events including the loss of half of the hydraulic systems and most of the flight controls, and a tentative return to Saigon. 138 people died that day; but thanks to the crew, 176 survived to live the “American dream.”

And here’s his brief bio, focusing on his Air Force career:

I was drafted out of college in 1967. Although accepted to be the flute and piccolo player for the 3rd Army Band, an Air Force recruiter in my college town (Athens GA) offered to commute my Army sentence. He said there were no spots in the AF band, though; but would I mind being a pilot? I ended up flying the massive C-133A Cargomaster right out of pilot training, volunteered for Vietnam to fly the C-7A Caribou, and returned to fly the even larger, C-5A Galaxy.

I flew my last Vietnam mission into Saigon, April 4th, 1975 – the first of Operation Babylift. Leaving Saigon, floor-loaded with orphans escaping the North Vietnamese, the aircraft suffered a mechanical failure at 23,000 feet that left me with half of my hydraulic systems and no flight control cables to the tail of the aircraft. 176 survived the barely controlled crash landing a couple miles northeast of Saigon.

I continued to fly as an Air Force Captain, until becoming the Aide for a Major General – which in-turn helped propel me to become a full-fledged “Chair-borne Ranger.” For the rest of my career, I remained desk-bound in one capacity or another. My last assignment was the Commander of the Air Force Flight Standards Agency at Andrews Air Force Base.

This is the 48th in a series of presentations sponsored by the Museum featuring eyewitnesses to, and other experts on, significant Cold War-era events and activities.

Date and Time: Sunday, August 8th, 2021 from 2:00-3:30 PM EST. THIS EVENT IS ENTIRELY VIRTUAL, WITH ONLINE ACCESS ONLY, DUE TO THE COVID HEALTH EMERGENCY.

(NOTE: FOR THOSE WHO WOULD LIKE TO SEE THIS PRESENTATION BUT CANNOT ATTEND BECAUSE THEY ARE AT A DISTANCE, HAVE A CONFLICT, ETC., THEY MAY BUY A TICKET VIA EVENTBRITE LIKE ATTENDEES, THEN ACCESS THE EVENT VIDEO ONLINE AFTER THE EVENT VIA A LINK THAT CWM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR JASON HALL WILL SEND THEM. TO ARRANGE, EMAIL JASON AT JASON@COLDWAR.ORG.)

Cost: $20, 100% of which is a contribution to the Cold War Museum.

Location: ONLINE ONLY. Eventbrite ticket buyers will receive a link to the virtual room on the Zoom platform where this event will take place. We are recording the whole event, including the Q&A, for the Museum’s archives.

Agenda:

• 1:30-2:00. Participants arrive in the Zoom room online.

• 2:00-2:05. Jason Hall, Executive Director of the Cold War Museum, introduces the Museum and Bud Traynor.

• 2:05-3:00. Bud presents on Operation Babylift and the Babylift Crash.

• 3:00-3:30. Q&A opportunity for the audience.

Questions? Call or email Jason Hall, 703-283-4124 (cell), jason@coldwar.org