13 Sep '57: TOS USAF as a C-123B as 56-4362. 1962 to 1972: Deployed to South Vietnam as sprayer. Jan '72: 377th Air Base Wing,Tan Son Nhut. By this time the aircraft had received nearly 600 hits in combat and was nicknamed "Patches" for all the metal patches covering the holes.  The crew earned seven Purple Hearts.  1972: Became the first and only C-123 to fly completely around the world when it returned to the USA by way of Afghanistan and Iran, where it assisted in the fight against a plague of locusts. Jan 73: Redesignated C-123K and decontaminated of Agent Orange. 1980: Flew to the Air Force Museum.

Actually T-28B BuNo 140048 assigned to NAS Norfolk and sent to MASDC for storage in 1976. In August 1981 it was transferred out to the US Army Aviation Engineering Flight Activity, Edwards AFB, going back to MASDC around 1986 but ferried to Wright Patterson for the USAF Museum in March 1987. It is painted as a VNAF aircraft assigned to Bien Hoa AB in 1962, where USAF pilots trained and flew combat missions with VNAF crews in Operation Farm Gate

Displayed on the roof of the Independence Palace (Dinh Doc Lap), home of the president of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War and site of the handover of power during the Fall of Saigon on 30th April 1975

This is apparently in fact F-5A 65-10523, originally delivered the Republic of China and then to South Vietnam in 1972, painted to represent F-5E 73-01638 which was used by the SVNAF's Lieutenant Trung to attack the Independence Palace in Saigon on 8th April 1975. Trung was secretly acting on behalf of the North Vietnamese and handed the aircraft over to their forces after the attack. The Independence Palace was the home and workplace of the president of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War and the site of the official handover of power during the Fall of Saigon on 30th April 1975

Photographer: William Draeger

Photographer: David Menard

Photographer: Robert Burgess.

Painted in the SVNAF colours it wore in the mid-1970s, this Bird Dog was taken on strength as an O-1A by the US Army as 51-4981 in 1951. In 1966 Cessna converted it to O-1G at Wichita and it was deployed to Vietnam. On 29 April 1975 a SVNAF major crammed his wife and five children aboard to escape advancing North Vietnamese forces. Flying out to sea in the hope of finding a rescue ship, he ran low on fuel but spotted USS Midway, its deck full with helicopters. He dropped a pleading note written on a chart and a number of Hueys and Chinooks were pushed over the side so he could land!

Actual serial number was SVNAF 51-4981. This aircraft fled from the advancing N. Vietnamese in 1975 with 7 people on board and landed on USS Midway while at sea. (Note: A different Bird Dog, painted to represent this aircraft, was put on display at the USS Midway Museum, San Diego/CA.)

Transferred from US Marines in June 1964. Photo from: National Archives at College Park, Maryland

One of many stored at NAS Corpus Christi.

One of many stored at NAS Corpus Christi.

Was in use with 716 Recconaissance Squadron/33 Tactical Wing at Tan Son Nhut.