CHAPTER 9

Planning the Evacuation

Brigade Planning and Liaison -The Restructured 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade -The Concept Additional Forces, Plans, and Liaison - DAO Planning: The SPG and Project Alamo

Brigade Planning and Liaison

South Vietnam in April 1975 offered few opportunities for U.S. Marine planners to control and direct events precipitated by North Vietnam's highly successful invasion. The absence of a strong U.S. military presence in Southeast Asia only compounded this already complicated crisis situation. In the Pacific command, operational forces belonged either to the Seventh Fleet or USSAG/Seventh Air Force, and if any jurisdiction-al disputes arose, CinCPac would have the final word. The Seventh Fleet's amphibious force included the Navy amphibious task force, Task Force 76 (TF 76);

the 9th MAB, designated Task Group 79.1 (TG 79.1);

and the MAB's parent organization, III Marine Amphibious Force, Task Force 79 (TF 79).

American Marines in South Vietnam in 1975 came under the jurisdictional control of two persons, the Defense Attache or the Ambassador. The Marines guarding American facilities took their orders from Ambassador Graham A. Martin while those at the DAO received their directions from General Homer D. Smith, Jr., USA, the Defense Attache. As early as February, General Smith had instructed Colonel Eugene R. 'Pat' Howard, the senior Marine in South Vietnam and a DAO staff member, to begin planning for the evacuation of Saigon. Both General Smith and Colonel Howard knew that ultimately the final decisions concerning the evacuation would come to rest with the senior military officer in the Pacific, Admiral Gayler. Unless the final evacuation occurred without military support, it would be at a minimum an air and naval event.

To oversee and control such an event, CinCPac, the overall commander in the Pacific theater of operations, designated Lieutenant General John J. Burns, the commander of USSAG, to be his coordinating authority for any emergency evacuations conducted in Southeast Asia. Already the tactical commander of all U.S. forces assigned to Thailand, this additional duty placed General Burns in the position of controlling any evacuation force once that unit entered the Indochinese peninsula. This meant that the 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade while afloat served under the amphibious force commander and the Commander, Seventh Fleet, but once ashore belonged to General Burns.'

The geographic point marking the change in operational control from the Seventh Fleet to USSAG was the Southeast Asian coastline. Once past that imaginary line, the units were deemed 'feet dry' having left their 'feet wet' status at the water's edge. Thus the Commanding General, 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade, Brigadier General Richard E. Carey, operated within a dual command structure, although most of the time the Seventh Fleet exercised control over his forces.2

General Burns' decision on 5 April 1975 to employ Marines of Task Force 79 as a ground security force and Marine helicopters to evacuate South Vietnam actually began the 9th MAB's compressed planning phase. Prior to this, the evacuation options included only the use of either commercial air transports or sealift or the employment of military transport aircraft or sealift. These options anticipated the use of only limited numbers of ground forces, if any, in South Vietnam. After the collapse of Da Nang, however. General Burns realized that he needed some additional alternatives.3

Adding Marine helicopters and ground forces to the plan signified an escalation in requirements. It caused III MAF and the 9th MAB to mobilize their forces, and with the assistance of the Navy amphibious ready groups, to relocate off the coast of South Vietnam. Planning for the use of helicopters in such a large evacuation assumed that the maximum number of helicopters would be available to launch if execution became necessary.

On 5 April 1975, there was only one amphibious assault ship, USS Okinawa (LPH 3), in the Western Pacific. The attack carrier USS Hancock (CVA 19) had been summoned from the West Coast and was due to arrive off the coast of South Vietnam in the next few days. The Midway (CVA 41), homeportcd in 'Ybkosu-ka, Japan, also was available.4

As the month of April progressed, other changes took place and were reflected in new directives received by the brigade from General Burns' headquarters. Most were amplifying instructions pertaining to the original courses of action, while others simply defined