USS Skagit
and
Operation Passage To Freedom

I remember the operation in 1954.

After evading typhoon Grace along with the Magoffin, and Calvert, we finally arrived.
My LCVP and another LCVP were helping out in the operation, when we came back from the beach and were looking for Skagit, and we could not find her anywhere.

We pulled up alongside the USS Bayfield APA 33, and an officer told us that we would be coming aboard Bayfield.

That concerned us, later they told us that the Skagit left in a hurry with some VIP  Vietnamese types on a secret mission to the Philippines, and they took two of the Bayfield boats with them

We departed Indo China aboard the Bayfield, we pulled into Hong Kong on the way to Japan where we were to meet Skagit.

The crew of the USS Bayfield, God bless them, they let us have advance pay and uniforms so we could pull liberty in Hong Kong. We caught up with Skagit in Japan about a week or two later.

Darrell Daugherty (Cox'n)

 

Sorry Darrell that we had to leave you all on the beach. Seems like the USS Bayfield, APA 33 treated you well.
Operation Passage to Freedom was a sensitive mission for Skagit. We received special orders to leave this operational area for a high speed evacuation of government officials to the Philippines.

Rolland Turcotte (ET2) 

 

Sir:
I am a veteran of this operation. In 1954 I was a Marine orderly guard (one of six assigned) to Rear Admiral Lorenzo S. Sabin, Task Force 90's commander. As you may recall, the command ship was the USS Estes (AGC 12) . We plied the waters between Haiphong and Saigon during the 9 or 10 months of the operation. But, I remember we spent about half of the time in Saigon. I got out the Corps in 1958 and after college spent over 30 years outside the US managing foreign assistance programs and consequently missed many of the events that occurred between 1962 and 1993.

Until recently I hadn't thought much about the operation But deciding to do a bit of writing I chose this topic and began researching Operation Passage to Freedom. I discovered that this gigantic humanitarian evacuation was one of those mid century events that was almost completely eclipsed by later more dramatic happenings in the region. I was amazed to rediscover facts about it that I had forgotten. The most amazing was its scope. I was surprised that so many vessels had been involved. Too bad the Navy never issued a ribbon for the operation. It certainly marked a pivotal event in the long slide toward our own Vietnam war. Congratulations on your excellent web site.

Regards, Neil R. Huff

 

I was aboard the USS Montague during part of the evacation, in fact I think we made three loads of refugees from Haiphong up the river to Siagon.
We fed and gave them medical attention. Our ship's doctor was Dr Tom Dooley who as you probably know set up medical clinics for the Vietnamese after he left the service. He was truly a great American.
I have a few small pictures taken during the operation that I will gladly give to you for your web-site if you will e-mail me an address to send them to.

Thanks
Paul Webb

 

Hello,
    I was searching the web for info on the USS Knudson reunion dates, and found this web site, but have not seen any thing about the USS Knudson APD 101 being involved...so I am sending you a couple of paragraphs from the History of my Ship.
    We were anchored at the Port of Haiphong, to a buoy at the old French Naval base,
    I carried Dr. Tom Dooley and the interpreters up River to the embarkation point several times, and the boat crew and I counted the refugees as they were loaded aboard the LST's and other Landing Craft to then be loaded aboard the AKA's for the trip to Saigon.....
    Thanks for the site, the pictures bring back some great memories of my time in service.. and I will pass on the address to Old Shipmates.

Lawrence A. Gohagan Sr.
 
USS Knudson APD 101 History
 
The ship was recommissioned August 6, 1953, Lt. Comdr. J. F. Roohan Jr.. in command. After shakedown and conversion to an APD flagship, she departed San Diego, May 3, 1954 for the western pacific. Arriving Yokosuka May 23, 1954, She conducted amphibious exercises off Japan, South Korea and Okinawa. Clearing Tokyo bay August 13, 1954, She sailed for the Vietnamese coast, where she arrived Haiphong, North Vietnam, August 22, 1954.
As Flagship for the Commander, Embarkation Group, she participated in Operation "Passage to Freedom" through which the Navy evacuated almost 300,000 Vietnamese from North to South Vietnam. From August 22, 1954, to Sept. 19. 1954, she operated out of Haiphong during the loading of refugees, cargo, and military equipment by Navy ships. Then she steamed to Saigon, South Vietnam, arriving Sept. 22, 1954, continuing to Subic Bay Oct. 2, 1954. She returned to Yokosuka via Hong Kong Nov. 1, 1954, and on Nov. 7, 1954, she sailed for the United States, arriving San Diego, California Nov. 23, 1954.

 

Hi - my name's Chris Peterson and I live in London, England. I came across your Web site whilst researching material for a book my wife and I are doing on the mass evacuation of Vietnamese from Hanoi/Haiphong to Saigon in 1954-1955. My wife is Vietnamese - we met in 1972 whilst I was a journalist covering the Indochina conflict.
She was born in Haiphong and was four years old when she and her mother, sister and four brothers were all evacuated from Haiphong to Saigon to join her father, a senior Vietnamese customs official who had been sent south some weeks earlier. She has only hazy memories of the voyage (but she would like to say a big thank you to you and your colleagues!!). I will be going to Saigon next month to see her mother and chat to her about the migration, but in the meantime I just wonder if you had any ideas where I could get further information, particularly on the organisation and the ships involved, and also any photographs to match the treasure trove you have on your Web site?
With best regards,
Chris Peterson

 

It was a pleasure to come across your website today.  I have been researching Operation Passage to Freedom and the efforts of the USOM in refugee resettlement since 2000.  To date I have collected approximately 45 oral history interviewees of individuals who participated in the operation as well as a few full boxes of documents related to this incredible period of time.  I have recently finished a manuscript on the operation, which I hope to have published in the near future.
 
I am always interested in talking with those who served during the operation. As you can attest, it had a tremendous impact on the 18-20 year old American sailors and, from my interviews, remains such an important event even today. Sadly, it is rarely discussed in courses on the Vietnam War (except for me, of course:))

I just wanted to send a note of appreciation for your website.  When I began my research, there was very little available on the web.
 
Ron Frankum
 
P.s.  All of my research materials will be donated to the Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University as soon as the book is published
 
Ronald B. Frankum, Jr. Ph.D.
Millersville University of Pennsylvania
Department of History
McComsey Hall, Room 321
Millersville, PA  17551
 
Ronald.Frankum@millersville.edu
Office (717)-872-3745

 

I wanted to congratulate you on your Passage to Freedom web page. USS Telfair participated in that critical humanitarian mission and was a member of Task Force 90. Telfair transported 6,470 Vietnamesee Refugees from the Haiphong area in Northern Indo-China to Saigon.
During that time four babies were born on board, and a young Vietnamese woman lost overboard while the ship was anchored in the mouth of  the Saigon River was saved.
Telfair's crew ran into the same problems as the other ships, like communication, and feeding problems, cleaning up after Refugees departures and also the terrible smell, and keeping order among the Refugees.
It was no picnic some of the crew worked long long hours.
I have been doing some reviewing of the Operation Passage to Freedom and discovered the American military personnel in the operation received the French Indo Chinese "Ribbon of Friendship" from President Diem, later changed to the Vietnam Presidential Unit Citation, in recognition of their participation.
You know Passage to Freedom was the largest evacuation operation by sea in military history.  Despite that impressive fact, the U.S.Navy never awarded any medal to the naval personnel who participated in the evacuation of more than 300,000 refugees fleeing the Viet Minh.
I now live in Ohio and I have summarized articles on OPERATION PASSAGE TO FREEDOM and e-mailed my information to US Senators George V. Voinovich and Mike DeWine of Ohio.
I feel that the sailors who participated in the evacuation of the fleeing refugees 1954 - 55 should receive the same recognition as the military personnel and be awarded the Vietnam Presidential Unit Citation medal.
That's my story

Robert S. Barklay
Former Yeoman 2nd Class
USS Telfair APA 210

 

Mike,
I've had this site listed under my favorites for some time, but never caught the error till today. I was aboard the USS Comstock, LSD, but it wasn't the 45. It was the 19. The 45 did not exist at that time.
 
Thanks
 
Al Mendenhall
Springfield, Il.

 

Sniker For Ever......

Dear Friend
My name is Henry Do (61)
Your pictures of Vietnamese evacuation touched me very much. I cannot forget the first moment I stepped onto a American ship to go to South Vietnam. A sailor handed me a candy (that time I was so young, only 11) at the moment I could not say thanks in english, but just looked at the sailor and I found out he was busy doing his job, and the Vietnamese also were worrying about where to sleep in his ship.
 
Eventually I and my brothers could eat the candy. Oh my God, it was very very delicious. It was the best candy in the world. The caramel was soft and sweet, it's chocolate coat was sweeter ....and when I bit a peanut in it the peanut brought the sweetness down to regular sweet and the crunchiness made me and my brother make a lot of noise from our mouth... who care about the noise? no american in the area full of Vietnamese and American knew well all asian make noise when we eat....
 
21 year after the sweet moment I meet the candy again at American soil (1975) and I found out my sweet lover's name is Sniker. I can eat the candy anytime I want, but I didn't eat many candy, just because my body doesn't need many sugar. I eat the candy only I want to remember the sailor, and the ship that brought me and my familly to the freedom land.
 
Henry Do

 

I was aboard USS Calvert APA-32 during Operation Passage To Freedom in 1954, and I appreciate your web site.
What kind of medals or patches are we entitled to?
I would also like to contact any old members of the Calvert from that time.

John Anderson
e-mail: john@janderson.us

 

I was abroad the Andromeda (AKA - 15) during the operation "Passage to Freedom".

Allow me to mention during the August-September 1954 experience, a few things that have always stuck with me.
 
I still remember how hot it was, the (very) hungry people, the stench in the "holds", and each trip to Haiphong to Saigon was a new experience.

I remember taking some young boys into our showers, bathing them, then giving them gum.  They began chewing the gum (wrapper and all) and of course we had to show them how to do it.

Another occasion was when we were loading up refugees and the OD told me to go help an elderly woman carry her long pole weighed down on each end with all her possessions; she could not have weighted more than 80 pounds.  I weighed about 185 and considered myself physically fit.

It was humiliating attempting to help her, as she thought we were going to take the possessions away from her, as they were already told by the communists that we were going to rape the women and then kill them at sea and give them to the sharks.

The real embarrassment came when I had difficulty carrying her possessions on board as I considered it extremely heavy.  Of course, I was laughed at by my crew members!

I remember how we would stop in Tourane between trips and fumigate the ship.  I believe the most difficult time we had was attempting to communicate with the refugees. I think we had a Catholic Priest who was Vietnamese and spoke English.

One time as a Chief and myself were attempting to bring food and tea to the refugees, they were so hungry and thirsty, they nearly mobbed us.

I learned many things by this experience in those 26 days. I think we made three trips!

Warren Carara DK3

 

I can't tell you how delighted I am to have found your site. My father, the late Patrick Cole Downey (Roslyn, NY), served as a radioman aboard the USS Ajax during Passage to Freedom and expressed to me on one occasion (years ago) his dismay over how he and his shipmates and other veterans were never properly recognized for their actions.

To summarize, he spoke of assisting and giving medical treatment to Vietnamese civilians who had been injured and tortured, as well as having had the misfortune to have assisted in the burial and or disposal of Vietnamese bodies aboard ship.

Moreover, one night, some twenty years ago, my father broke down at the dinner table (for no apparent reason), and related to my family how he had shot to death a Vietnamese man with his BAR, after having come under fire from a river bank while delivering mail (to whom I have no idea), in some kind of small vessel of sorts.

According to my father, after the action he was ordered to keep his mouth permanently shut (along with another sailor or two who were with him at the time), which I believe he did. Needless to say, I would be VERY interested to learn more about this incident / action. If you know anything about it, please contact me via e-mail:

Regards,

Patrick C. Downey Jr. USMC 1986-1989
e-mail: blue75280z@yahoo.com