Falling People (Then and Now)

     There were numerous shocking photos from the Taliban takeover of Kabul in Afghanistan, including the scene of people desperate to escape the capital as it fell apart, holding onto a U.S. Air Force plane until they could no longer do so.

 

 

    The scene reminded me of an event during my service in Vietnam.

    Some South Vietnamese ARVN soldiers (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) in 1970/'71 hung onto U.S. military helicopters leaving a battle scene across the border in Laos...until they no longer could hold on.  

   Like the Afghanistan refugees, they fell to their deaths.

"...the evacuation of an ARVN regiment on Route 9 where soldiers clung to the skids of helicopters rather than waiting for more helicopters that might not come.... Moreover, there were claims that "American crews coated the skids with grease so the South Vietnamese would stop hanging on in numbers sufficient to bring down the choppers". (Source HERE.)

    I was producing my 10:00pm newscast on Armed Forces Vietnam Network in Quang Tri, and included the landing skid details in a story. The Army Lieutenant managing the station deleted it from the show, saying it would be bad for morale. It was one of two times in 50 years of broadcasting that my stories were truly censored. The other was also a government action, and I'll write about it in another time.