“Lady Ace 09″

Call sign: “Lady Ace 09″

The Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar, San Diego California recently placed on public display CH-46 Sea Knight (BuNo. 154803) call sign “Lady Ace 09″. She entered service with HMM-165, February 1968, at MCAS Santa Ana. (MCAS Santa Ana’s name was changed to MCAS Tustin in 1970.)

At 1045 hours on 29 April 1975, the U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam, Graham Martin, gave the order to commence “Operation Frequent Wind”, the helicopter evacuation of the last remaining Americans civilians and ‘at-risk’ Vietnamese from Saigon.

Under orders from President Gerald R. Ford to immediately evacuate Ambassador Martin, Captain Gerry Berry, pilot of “Lady Ace 09″, was dispatched and landed on the roof of the U.S. Embassy. At 0459 hours, 30 April, Captain Berry lifted off with Ambassador Martin onboard, and transported him to the USS Blue Ridge LCC-19 which was standing by in the South China Sea.

The evacuation of Ambassador Martin marked the official end of American involvement in the Vietnam War

Captain Berry and “Lady Ace 09″ returned to the embassy roof one last time to extract 25 of the remaining 36 Marines.

The remaining 11 Marines were picked up at 0753 hours, and left Saigon on the last U.S. helicopter transport to leave South Vietnam, a CH-46 from HMM-164, call sign “Swift 2-2.

“Operation Frequent Wind” stands as the largest and most successful helicopter evacuation in history. For the Marine Corps, it meant 1,054 flight hours and 682 sorties. Captain Berry logged 18.3 flight hours and 34 sorties – more than any other helicopter pilot in the operation.

Semper Fi