Exodus to U-Tapao Royal Thai Air Base

I thought I would drop you a note to let you know I enjoyed your website and offer a few tid bits of my own. I was stationed in Utapao Royal Thai Airbase in April of 1975 as a flight mechanic with the Air Rescue helicopter unit. Early in the day we received an alert notice from the tower that there were so many aircraft on the radar flying in from Vietnam and that we should prepare are helicopters for launch. Our alert facilities were next to the main taxiway so everyone in our unit went out to watch as over 530 aircraft flew in from Vietnam over an eight hour period.

The first group was a flight of 25-30 F-5E aircraft that had only recently been delivered to the VNAF and none had over 50 hours of flight time. Things were so confused most aircraft were not requesting landing instructions and two F-5s landed side by side heading the proper direction and a third landed the opposite direction. One F-5 came in with the pilot, his wife, and three children all inside the cockpit to accomplish this the seat was removed and he sat on a box of some kind. As a rule all of the aircraft that day had large numbers of persons on board.

Following the F-5Es were a large number of A37s, some with loaded racks, and then about 10 older model C-130s. Because of limited ramp parking areas and security concerns all the VNAF aircraft were parked at a ramp area just off the end of the taxiway. This area soon filled up and a large flat field adjacent to our alert pad was used. As the aircraft arrived the passengers and crews were requested to give up all their arms and they and their family member taken to a covered area adjacent to the parking ramp.

The third large group of aircraft were C-47, C-46s, C-119s, including a number of unpainted Air America DC-3s. Following these aircraft were a large number of single engine and a mix of other aircraft. With all these aircraft arriving only three minor accidents happened, two C-47s had main landing gear failures, without any injuries, and one Air America C-47 ran out of fuel and taxied into the side of our alert pad. Because the area was full of water we placed a metal ramp down and helped everyone off the aircraft.

All during the day the local Thai officials were very concerned about the arrival of so many aircraft and they did not know what they should do with the people or aircraft. All of the aircraft markings were painted over within hours or arriving at Utapao .The US Air Force flew in at least two C-5 aircraft in and transported all the people to Guam or some other destination. As for the aircraft at first the Thai,s wanted them to be given back to Vietnam. But the US government had other ideas. Seven F-5E aircraft were airlifted by helicopter to a aircraft carrier off the coast but after dropping one in the ocean the remainder were towed through town to a barge that would take them to the carrier. The C-130s were flown to Clark AFB along with some of the A-37s but the remainder just sat on the field for the next month.

I have a dozen or more 35 mm slides showing a few of the aircraft taxing and shots of rows of aircraft parked on the ramp. If you would like to use any of these I would be happy to loan them to you. Please let me know and I will mail them to you.

Best of Luck,
Dave.