Nguyen Thanh Trung, the pilot who...
vietGutenberg
http://www.pbs.org/vietnampassage/images/FOLDER.main.trung.jpg
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Trung trained in Texas in 1969.
http://www.pbs.org/vietnampassage/images/STORIES_trung_08.jpg
Trung lands in NVA territory to a hero's welcome.
http://www.pbs.org/vietnampassage/images/STORIES_trung_10.jpg Trung today.
Nguyen Thanh Trung, spent most of his teenage years in pursuit of one
goal: to avenge the death of his father at the hands of South Vietnamese
troops. This burning desire for revenge led him to flight schools in
Texas and back to his homeland, where he fought alongside southern
troops, all the while hatching a plot that would earn him a place in war
history - to bomb the palace of Saigon's leaders, the men he held
responsible for his father’s death. Today Capt. Trung is a pilot for
Vietnam Airlines.
Trung grew up in the river byways of the Mekong Delta, a fertile land
home to many poor farmers, many of whom saw the Viet Cong, guerilla
fighters who supported Communist North Vietnam as their only hope for a
better life - and a united Vietnam. Like so many other children in
Vietnam, he lost a parent to the war being fought around him, when, in
1963, his father, a Viet Cong guerilla, was executed by South Vietnamese forces.
On the death of his father:
"That day, I could not go back to my house. I didn’t have anywhere to
go. So I sat on the ferry [I took to school every day and went] back and
forth, back and forth on the river all night. I asked myself the
question, who is responsible for the death of my father? I answer for
myself. I said, President Diem [the leader, handpicked by the
Americans], you are responsible for the death of my father. And I told
myself, when I am grown up, if I have the opportunity, I will become a
pilot. And I will bomb the palace of the leader of South Vietnam."
Trung joined the Viet Cong movement shortly after his father's death. He
would spend the next twelve years working to fulfill his dramatic vow to
bomb the palace in Saigon. The Viet Cong encouraged him to join the
South Vietnamese Air Force, and in 1969, he was sent for advanced
training in Texas. When he returned to his country, he began flying
regular bombing sorties. But stealing a F-5, one of the American's most
sophisticatd jets from the tightly guarded military base was close to
impossible. It would take him three years to perfect his plan to bomb
the presidential palace.
Trung finally perfected a plan using the military's own protocol against
them. To cut down on radio noise, the pilots were required to
communicate with each other by visual signals before they took off. On
April 5, 1975, Trung gave his squad leader a hand signal that he was
having electrical trouble. The rest of his squadron took off without
him. According to military procedure, he had ten seconds in which to
abort his mission, or catch up with the other planes. He waited out the
ten second countdown and took off. But instead of joining his formation,
he headed for the target he had held in his mind - the presidential palace.
Trung avenges his father's death:
Just after take-off, I fly direct to Saigon. On that day, my aircraft
was loaded with four bombs, [Viet Cong leaders had told him to use] two
for the palace, two for the U.S. embassy. But with the first two bombs,
I missed targeting the palace. Very quickly I made the decision. With
the last two bombs I will bomb the palace and forget the embassy.
Trung's bombs set fire to only a small section of the Presidential
Palace roof, but the psychological damage was done. He had brought the
war to downtown Saigon - and signaled South Vietnam's leaders that their
time was running out. When Trung landed the American F-5 jet on a tiny
airstrip in Northern territory, he was greeted with a hero's welcome.
But he paid a hefty price for his actions - back in Saigon his wife and
children were thrown in jail just hours after the bombs fell.
In one of the final actions of the war, Trung faced an even greater
challenge than the bombing of the Palace: training a ragtag group of
North Vietnamese fliers, who were used to Soviet-made MiGs how to fly
F-5s. The young captain was able to teach them to fly the American
planes in just five days. On April 28, 1975, Trung led a formation of
five planes that bombed Saigon's main airport, Tan Son Nhat, throwing
the entire American evacuation into chaos.
On his motivation for the bombing:
I did everything I could to stop the war as soon as possible. You stop
the war one day earlier, you can save a lot of people. One month
earlier, you can save thousands. One year earlier, a million. The
earlier you stop the war, the more people you can save.
Trung was one of a handful of Vietnamese pilots trained by the Americans
to remain in Vietnam after the war ended. When Vietnam invaded Cambodia
in 1979, he took to the skies again and led bombing raids over the
border. In 1990, Trung joined the national carrier, Vietnam Airlines,
and has been helping train a new generation of aviators ever since.
Vietnam Airlines' new generation:
"Most of our pilots are very young, less than 35 years old. Most of them
have grown up in peace, and were not involved in wartime. My generation
is always teaching them, letting them know what happened in the past…
and they are always learning."
Phan Kane
with all the heartfelt hope. Now he sticks his head up while driving the old
monkeys around.
"vietGutenberg" <vg...@mac.com> wrote in message
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> is always teaching them, letting them know what happened in the past.
Qu.Tinh
QTTT
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