Recalling the Bird Dog’s Heroic Carrier Landing

[Grey Havoc]

https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history/2025/june/recalling-bird-dogs-heroic-carrier-landing

An audience of several hundred sat spellbound in the spacious atrium of the National Naval Aviation Museum on Wednesday, 1 May , as they heard firsthand accounts of the O-1 “Bird Dog” Cessna’s desperate flight and miracle landing aboard the USS Midway (CVA-41) 50 years ago on 30 April 1975.

Opening the event, “Flight to Freedom: Remembering the 0-1 Bird Dog and the USS Midway,” master of ceremonies Rear Admiral Victor Hall said, “This is a very shining moment in naval history.” Museum Deputy Director Hill Goodspeed echoed the sentiment, saying that the “Bird Dog” incident remains “one of the most inspiring stories told by this museum.”

Discussing the incident were four men directly involved, including Rear Admiral (then-Captain) Lawrence Chambers, the Midway’s commanding officer, and Vietnamese Air Force Major Bung Ly (now Lee), the Bird Dog’s pilot. Adding further detail were retired Captain Tony McFarlane, then a second-class flight deck petty officer, and Captain (then-Lieutenant Commander) Ed Ellis, the carrier’s JAG officer.

Four weeks earlier, on 31 March 1975, the Midway had been detached from at-sea training near Japan and was ordered to join a flotilla of more than 30 7th Fleet warships and auxiliaries stationed off the southern coast of South Vietnam. The ships would comprise the last safe harbor for Americans and endangered South Vietnamese who fled the disintegrating Saigon regime by helicopter.

[snip]

Honoring Heroism and Humanity - NNAM

National Naval Aviation Museum commemorates the 50th anniversary of Major Bung Lee’s heroic Bird Dog landing on USS Midway during Saigon’s fall.

navalaviationmuseum.org

On 29 April 1975, Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) Major Lý Bửng (also spelled Buang-Ly or Buang Lee) loaded his wife and five children into a two-seat Cessna O-1 Bird Dog and took off from Con Son Island. After evading enemy ground fire, Buang headed out to the South China Sea, found Midway, and began to circle overhead with his landing lights turned on. Midway's crew unsuccessfully attempted to contact the aircraft on emergency frequencies. When a spotter reported that there were at least four people in the two-seater aircraft, all thoughts of forcing the pilot to ditch alongside were abandoned. After three tries, Major Buang managed to drop a note from a low pass over the deck: "Can you move the helicopter to the other side, I can land on your runway, I can fly for one hour more, we have enough time to move. Please rescue me! Major Buang, wife and 5 child." Captain Larry Chambers, the ship's commanding officer, ordered that the arresting wires be removed and that any helicopters that could not be safely and quickly moved should be pushed over the side. He called for volunteers, and soon every available seaman was on deck to help. An estimated US$10 million worth of UH-1 Huey helicopters were pushed overboard. With a 500-foot (150 m) ceiling, 5-mile (8.0 km) visibility, light rain, and 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) of surface wind, Chambers ordered the ship to sail at 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) into the wind. Warnings about the dangerous downdrafts created behind a steaming carrier were transmitted blind in both Vietnamese and English. To make matters worse, five more UH-1s landed and cluttered up the deck. Without hesitation, Chambers ordered them jettisoned as well. Captain Chambers recalled that

[Buang's] aircraft cleared the ramp and touched down on center line at the normal touchdown point. Had he been equipped with a tailhook he could have bagged a number 3 wire. He bounced once and came to a stop abeam of the island, amid a wildly cheering, arms-waving flight deck crew.[9]

USS Midway (CV-41) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org