Some of the most enduring images of the end of the Vietnam War are those of freedom-living South Vietnamese fleeing the pending tyranny, such as the crowds boarding the last Bell helicopter to leave the US Embassy in Saigon (now known as Ho Chi Minh City) and the Vietnamese boat people ( Thuyền nhân Việt Nam ). One daring South Vietnamese Air Force pilot (officially the Republic of Vietnam Air Force [RVNAF; Không lực Việt Nam Cộng hòa /KLVNCH]) wasn't content to cram himself and his family into either that helicopter or one of those rickety boats. Instead, he "borrowed" (read: hot-wired and stole) a fixed-wing military aircraft and landed it on a US Navy aircraft carrier.
Simple Flying now shares the amazing story of Major ( Thiếu tá ) Buang-Ly. Despite its warrior tribe namesake, the Mohawk plane wasn't designed to fight enemy jets. The Cessna O-1E plane "Oh the O-1E go flyin' Along the mountain track Across the jungle, across the shore And some just don't come back" --"O-1E" by Irv Levine , Major, USAF (Ret.
) The good Major conveniently acquired a Cessna O-1 Bird Dog for his (and his family's) daring flight to freedom. The plane made its maiden flight on December 14, 1949, and entered service in 1950 as the L-19 in the Korean War . According to the Charlie Company Vietnam website, the Bird Dog made aviation history as the first all-metal fixed-wing aircraft ordered for and by the US Army after establishing the US Air Force (USAF) as a separat.