The Fall of Saigon 50 Years Later

 I have blogged a lot about "The Vietnam War", it defined my Dads Generation and it also defined mine to an extent because we felt the effect of it.  I am a product of the 80's U.S. Army and an Army brat, those that know what that is know what that is.  I have more in kinship with the Vietnam war soldiers than the soldiers of the GWOT and Afghanistan partly because the experiences of the Army of the 1980's were paid for by the Army of Vietnam and sure we had some really cool gear but mostly if you stood a Soldier from Vietnam together from a soldier from the first Gulf war, the gear and rifle are similar, whereas the soldier from the GWOT looked a lot different.

         Soldiers from an U.S Army unit head out after being airlifted in to interdict the NVA during one of the many operations that seemed to define the war.

    Soldiers from an Army Airborne unit pose together. after the end of the ground war.    You can tell, our gear are similar, our training was similar but we had incorporated "Airland Battle" and this new tactic is how we introduced what became known as "Hyperwar" to the world because of the speed we took down the 4th largest military in the world.

Fall of Saigon—50 Years Later

 

Vietnam is marking the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon today, commemorating the end of the Vietnam War. A military parade in Ho Chi Minh City—the former South Vietnamese capital of Saigon—is expected to draw more than 13,000 people, including delegations from several countries. US officials are not on the guest list, a mutual diplomatic decision despite improved relations in recent decades.   The anniversary marks the day North Vietnamese forces captured the city, ending nearly two decades of war and unifying the country under communist rule. Although American combat troops withdrew in 1973, thousands of personnel remained. On April 30, 1975, the US launched the largest helicopter evacuation in history—airlifting about 7,000 Americans and South Vietnamese civilians. The operation began with a coded broadcast of Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” over Armed Forces Radio. The war's end also prompted a large migration: Today, more than 1.3 million Vietnamese immigrants live in the US.   At the war’s peak, about 543,400 US troops were stationed in the country. The US continues to honor Vietnam veterans through a 13-year commemoration set to conclude on Veterans Day. See photos here.