OAMag-V7N4-Cover [Converted] - Orient Aviation

f e a t u r e25 years after the fall of Saigon, Orient Aviation speaks to ...On April 8, 1975 Captain Nguyen Thanh Trung entered Vietnam’shistory books with an incredible act of daring that is credited with acceleratingthe end of the Vietnam War – one of the South VietnameseAir Force’s most experienced fighter pilots bombed his president’spalace before defecting to North Vietnam.Saigon fell to the Communists three weeks later.Capt. Trung, now chief pilot with Vietnam Airlines, became a nationalicon. But until this extraordinary interview only his close familyand friends knew his act was also a personal crusade to avenge thedeath of his Viet Cong father who was killed by the South VietnameseArmy 13 years earlier.He also told Orient Aviation that between daily bombing missionshe was secretly planning, at great risk, the great symbolic act of theVietnam War with the Communist top brass. In the end, as he sat inhis F-5 fighter on the runway at the Bien Hua air base, he had only a10 second window to activate or abort the one-chance mission.The man whobombed thepresidentialpalaceEXCLUSIVE: BARRY GRINDROD speaks to Vietnam Airlines’ chief pilotwhose mission in the Vietnam War made him a national iconCOUNTDOWNIt was 1963 and 15-year-old Nguyen ThanhTrung was sitting in class taking a geographylesson at his boarding school inmy Tho.As usual, school started at 8am, but thisday was going to be like no other for theteenager. It changed the young Trung’s lifeforever.At about 9am a friend entered theclassroom and quietly came over to him. Hewhispered in his ear: “Your father has beenkilled.”“My father was a Viet Cong. We knew helived a dangerous life. The South VietnameseSpecial Forces had tortured another Viet Congand he had given my father’s name,” saidCapt. Trung.“They hid by the side of the road andwaited for my father to pass and then theyshot him.“When my friend told me I felt terrible,I loved my father very much, but I couldnot do anything. I just looked ahead at theblackboard. There were 50 children in myclass. I could not tell them my father was aViet Cong.“As I sat there I made a decision. I askedmyself who was responsible. I decided I couldCapt. Trung points to the spot on the roof of the former presidential palace where one ofhis two bombs hit56 | Orient Aviation | February 2000