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U.S. Merchant Marine and CIA Help Evacuate Refugees from Da Nang and Other Locations

March 27, 1975

The deck and superstructure of the Military Sealift Command's SS Pioneer Contender, en route Phu Quo
The deck and superstructure of the Military Sealift Command's SS Pioneer Contender, en route Phu Quo
The deck and superstructure of the Military Sealift Command's SS Pioneer Contender, en route Phu Quoc Island, teems with refugees.

Over five days, non-combatant ships of the U.S. Military Sealift Command take part in evacuating refugees from Da Nang south to Cam Ranh Bay.  The SS Pioneer Commander, SS Pioneer Contender, USNS Miller, and several other vessels evacuate over 30,000 refugees. CIA-owned Air America also helps evacuate refugees by air. U.S. and allied vessels evacuate thousands of additional refugees from several other ports in I and II Corps.1

1Edward J. Marolda, By Sea, Air, and Land: An Illustrated History of the U.S. Navy and the War in Southeast Asia (Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1994), 357–58; Unknown authors, Air America: Upholding the Airmen’s Bond, (Dallas, TX: Center for the Study of Intelligence, University of Texas, Dallas, 2009), 35.