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Disaster Relief, Vietnam
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  • Relief Efforts--Humanitarian Aid-Rescue
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1980-1989 - Rescue of Vietnamese Refugees


428-GX-K-130903: South China Sea. Vietnamese children relax and look at comic books on the deck of USS Towers (DDG-9), shortly after their rescue from a small boat found adrift. Photographed by PH3 Kenneth Flemings, received May 3, 1981. Official...
Caption: 428-GX-K-130903: South China Sea. Vietnamese children relax and look at comic books on the deck of USS Towers (DDG-9), shortly after their rescue from a small boat found adrift. Photographed by PH3 Kenneth Flemings, received May 3, 1981. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Throughout the decade, a number of U.S. Navy ship assisted in the rescue of hundreds of Vietnamese refugees in the South China Sea, off Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), northeast of Singapore, and in various locations off the Vietnamese coast.   


428-GX-K130895: South China Sea. Vietnamese refugees rest on the fantail of guided missile destroyer USS Towers (DDG-9) just after being rescued from their small boat. Photographed by PH3 Kenneth Flemings, received May 3, 1981. Official U.S. Navy...
Caption: 428-GX-K130895: South China Sea. Vietnamese refugees rest on the fantail of guided missile destroyer USS Towers (DDG-9) just after being rescued from their small boat. Photographed by PH3 Kenneth Flemings, received May 3, 1981. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Some of the U.S. Navy ships that participated, in date order:  USS Parsons (DDG-33), USS Kilauea (T-AE-26), USS Worden (CG-18), USS Long Beach (CGN-9), USS Joseph Strauss (DDG-16), USS Truxtun (CGN-35), USS Merrill (DD-976), USS Brunswick (ATS-3), USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19), USS Francis Hammond (FF-1067), USS Sterett (CG-31), USS Towers (DDG-9), USS John Young (DD-973), USS Reeves (CG-24), USS Ranger (CV-61), and USS Bunker Hill (CG-52).


428-GX-K130898: South China Sea. Water sprays up as shots are fired from the guided missile destroyer USS Towers (DDG-9) to sink the small boat from which Vietnamese refugees were just rescued. Photographed by PH3 Kenneth Flemings, received May 3...
Caption: 428-GX-K130898: South China Sea. Water sprays up as shots are fired from the guided missile destroyer USS Towers (DDG-9) to sink the small boat from which Vietnamese refugees were just rescued. Photographed by PH3 Kenneth Flemings, received May 3, 1981. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

428-GX-K124382: South China Sea. A CH-46D “Sea Knight” helicopter of Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 11, HC-11, hovers over the after deck of the guided-missile destroyer USS Parsons (DDG-33) to take on board 21 Vietnamese refugees who were re...
Caption: 428-GX-K124382: South China Sea. A CH-46D “Sea Knight” helicopter of Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 11, HC-11, hovers over the after deck of the guided-missile destroyer USS Parsons (DDG-33) to take on board 21 Vietnamese refugees who were rescued from small craft by the destroyer. The Sea Knight is from the replenishment oiler USS Wabash (AOR-5) and will take the boat people to the oiler before processing before they are transported to Subic Bay, Republic of the Philippines. Photographed by PH2 Felimon Barbante, Jr., August 4, 1979. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.
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Published: Thu Apr 30 07:23:45 EDT 2020