Operation Frequent Wind required Midway to serve as an emergency evacuation carrier. As North Vietnamese forces approached Saigon, the operation sought to remove American civilians and vulnerable Vietnamese. Midway offloaded half of her regular combat air wing in the Philippines, sailed to Thailand, and embarked CH-53 Sea Stallions and other helicopters. The change exchanged combat capacity for the deck space and aircraft needed to move people. It is a concrete example of carrier flexibility during a humanitarian and political withdrawal at the end of a war.
Notable Point · 33:12-34:41
Midway became a helicopter carrier for Operation Frequent Wind
For the evacuation of Saigon, Midway offloaded half of her regular air wing and embarked heavy helicopters in place of normal strike-carrier capacity.