Operation Eagle Pull
Operation Eagle Pull | |||||||
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Part of the United States Marines deploy at LZ Hotel on 12 April 1975 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United States Khmer Republic | Khmer Rouge | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Admiral Don Whitmire | Pol Pot | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
2 helicopters damaged | None known |
Operation Eagle Pull was the
Strangulation of Phnom Penh
At the beginning of 1975 the
By 17 February, the Khmer Republic abandoned attempts to reopen the Mekong supply line. In future, all supplies for Phnom Penh would have to come in by air to
On 5 March, Khmer Rouge artillery at Toul Leap, north-west of Phnom Penh, shelled Pochentong Airport, but FANK troops recaptured Toul Leap on 15 March and ended the shelling. Khmer Rouge forces continued to close in on the north and west of the city and were soon able to fire on Pochentong again. On 22 March rockets hit two supply aircraft, forcing the US embassy to announce on 23 March a suspension of the airlift until the security situation improved. The embassy, realizing that the Khmer Republic would soon collapse without supplies, reversed the suspension on 24 March and increased the number of aircraft available for the airlift. On 1 April, the Khmer Rouge overran Neak Luong and Ban-am, the last remaining FANK positions on the Mekong. The Khmer Rouge could now concentrate all their forces on Phnom Penh.[3]: 105 Premier Lon Nol resigned that day and went into exile; the final collapse of the Khmer Republic was imminent.[4]: 358
Planning
The evacuation plan was developed and refined by the US Military as Khmer Rouge forces closed in on Phnom Penh, starting as early as 1973.[3]: 42 On 27 June 1973 the Seventh Air Force published Contingency Plan 5060C "Eagle Pull" covering the evacuation of Phnom Penh. Conplan 5060C had three options:
- Option 1: the evacuation of Embassy personnel, US citizens and designated Cambodians by regular or chartered civilian airlift from Pochentong Airport.
- Option 2: if Khmer Rouge action forced the cancellation of civilian flights from Pochentong Airport, security police from the 56th Security Police Squadron at helicopters if needed).
- Option 3: if Pochentong was closed to traffic the 56th Security Police Squadron would be landed to secure 56th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron.[5]
Option 3 was later revised to provide for the use of USMC helicopters together with USAF helicopters and C-130 Airborne Mission Command based in Thailand, and for the ground security force to be made up of marines rather than air force security police. The LZs were to be adjacent to the US Embassy in Phnom Penh.[5]: 138
On 6 January 1975,
On 21 March the Embassy predicted there would be 3,600 evacuees, far exceeding the original estimate of approximately 400. This necessitated the development of a new evacuation plan whereby Marines would secure Pochentong Airport, while helicopters would ferry evacuees from central Phnom Penh to Pochentong from where they would be flown on C-130 planes to Thailand.[3]: 109 However, this plan was quickly overtaken by events as the supply C-130s coming into Pochentong were used for evacuees on the return journey, quickly reducing the number of evacuees that would need to be moved in a final evacuation.[3]: 110
On 3 April, given the deterioration in the defences around Phnom Penh, Ambassador John Gunther Dean requested the deployment of the 10-man Operation Eagle Pull command element which landed at Pochentong on a BirdAir C-130 plane.[3]: 110 The command element supervised the ongoing fixed-wing evacuation of more than 750 Cambodians over the next seven days in the face of 80–90 rounds of 105 mm artillery and 107 mm rocket fire each day.[3]: 111–12 By 10 April Khmer Rouge fire had become so heavy that the fixed-wing evacuation was ended.[3]: 112
The command group then turned its attention to the selection of helicopter landing zones for the evacuation. As the Khmer Rouge controlled the east bank of the Mekong opposite Phnom Penh, the command group selected LZ Hotel, a soccer field about 900 metres (3,000 ft) north-east of the embassy. Masked from the river by a row of apartment buildings, this LZ could not be interdicted by direct fire weapons, making it the safest location. The embassy staff prepared to leave on 11 April, but the evacuation was delayed until the following day in order to allow USS Hancock to join the evacuation fleet off Kampong Som.[3]: 113
Evacuation fleet
On 3 March 1975
Task Group 76.4 (Movement Transport Group Alpha)[3]: 111
- : 106
- USS Vancouver
- USS Thomaston
Escort ships for naval gunfire, escort, and area defense:[1]
On 17 March the
As the Khmer Rouge had no air force and only limited
Evacuation
On the afternoon of 11 April 1975, the 31st MAU received orders to execute Operation Eagle Pull.[3]: 116 At 06:00 on 12 April, 12 CH-53s of HMH-462 launched from the deck of USS Okinawa and then at 10-minute intervals descended again to pick up their marines. Elements of Companies F and H, and the command group embarked from USS Okinawa while elements of Company G boarded their helicopters on USS Vancouver, giving a total ground security force of 360 Marines. As the helicopters completed loading they formed into groups of three orbiting the task force.[3]: 119
At 07:30 Ambassador Dean notified the acting Cambodian Chief of State, Prime Minister
The ten-man command group proceeded to drive vehicles to LZ Hotel, purposely disabling them to block vehicle access from any part of the city, other than the road from the Embassy to the LZ.
At 07:43 the first group of helicopters crossed the Cambodian coastline and about one hour later, after traversing 160 kilometres (99 mi) of hostile territory, the initial wave set down on LZ Hotel and the Marines quickly established a defensive perimeter. Large crowds of Cambodians soon gathered, more out of curiosity rather than to interfere. Having established the perimeter defense, the marines began the process of moving the crowds back in order to keep the LZ clear and then began moving the evacuee groups to the waiting CH-53 helicopters. As LZ Hotel could only hold three CH-53s at any time, flights arriving after the initial build-up had to be held at Point Oscar, some 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of Phnom Penh until called in by "King Bird".[3]: 121 The evacuation proceeded smoothly although the number of evacuees was substantially less than anticipated. The last estimate indicated there would be 590 evacuees, 146 US nationals and 444 Cambodians and third country nationals. HMH-462 evacuated 84 US nationals and 205 Cambodians and third country nationals.[3]: 121
At 09:45, the US Embassy closed.[3]: 121 There would be no diplomatic relations between the US and Cambodia again until 11 November 1991. By 10:41 all the evacuees including Ambassador Dean and President Saukham Khoy had been lifted out by helicopters of HMH-462. Helicopters of HMH-463 operating from USS Hancock then began to land to extract the ground security force.[3]: 122
At approximately 10:50, 107 mm rocket fire began impacting in the vicinity of LZ Hotel. Less than 10 minutes later, the LZ also received 82 mm mortar fire. As soon as the Khmer Rouge fire commenced, the controllers in the zone notified the Air Force forward air controllers (FACs) flying overhead in
At 11:15, the two USAF HH-53 Super Jolly Green Giants returned as scheduled, and successfully extracted the Combat Control Team and the Eagle Pull command element.
On 13 April, the evacuees were flown to U-Tapao Air Base in Thailand on HMH-462 helicopters and Amphibious Ready Group Alpha proceeded to the South China Sea to rendezvous with Task Force 76 as it stood by to implement Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of Saigon.[3]: 124
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HMH-462 CH-53 takes off from USS Okinawa
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Marines move to perimeter of LZ Hotel
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Aerial view of 3 USMC CH-53 helicopters on LZ Hotel
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View of Phnom Penh from the window of a Marine CH-53 helicopter
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Saukam Khoy, President of the Khmer Republic arrives on USS Okinawa
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Eagle Pull command group and men of the 40th ARRS celebrate the successful completion of the operation
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Ambassador Dean steps off an HMH-462 CH-53 at U-Tapao on the afternoon of 12 April
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The Soccer Field/LZ Hotel as seen in January 2008
Aftermath
Henry Kissinger observed in his Vietnam War memoir that the Ford Administration was astonished and shamed by the fact that top Cambodian officials refused to leave the country. These included Premier Long Boret and Lon Non, the Prime Minister's brother, both of whom were on the Khmer Rouge's advertised death list.[6]
On 17 April 1975 the
For 2/4 Marines and Amphibious Ready Group Alpha, Operation Eagle Pull served as a small-scale dress rehearsal for the more complex Operation Frequent Wind during the Fall of Saigon, which occurred 17 days later.[3]
In popular culture
Operation Eagle Pull is depicted in the film The Killing Fields.
References
- ^ a b c "Chapter 5: The Final Curtain, 1973–1975". history.navy.mil. 2000. Retrieved 24 July 2007. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ "Operation "Eagle Pull" In Cambodia | Ann Arbor District Library". aadl.org. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-16-026455-9. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ ISBN 0-233-97077-0.
- ^ .
- ^ "Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War". ed. Spencer Tucker, s.v. "EAGLE PULL, Operation"
- ISBN 1-891620-00-2.