As the film showed that last US transport plane, overloaded and with desperate people chasing it down runway, her normally solid and good humored son got very emotional. Yeah, he was the pilot of that last behemoth to leave. He never told her until that day, I think it was the 10th anniversary, maybe a later one. He said the nightmares of getting that thing up in the air, overloaded and with so many desperate people trying to chase and hang onto his plane persist... well, it broke him.

My friend held it together as he went back in his mind and told her about the struggle. But it broke her too. So many people, unsaved, still haunted her son.

flights were by Ed Daly from World Airways. He had been a troop carrier for the US with 3 Boeing 727's. His story of rescue begins in Da Nang and continued through Saigon. The US had abandoned Da Nang and said there would be no more flights but without authorization Daly had his flight crew go to pick up some women and children Here is a telling of the story and the heroism. I note that Daly not only had his planes and crews for the Da Nang run but he also continued unauthorized flights of women and children out of Saigon later. Also a video of the Da Nang flight.

https://www.historynet.com/homesick-angel-last-flight-da-nang/

Still can't put it out of my mind. So many young men from my old neighborhood never returned. So different today.