Retired Col. Gerry Berry used to tell people he flew the last helicopter out of Saigon.

"Now, I say I ended the Vietnam War,” he said.

Berry, a Des Moines Technical and Simpson College graduate, was a young U.S. Marine pilot in April 1975 when his Sea Knight helicopter landed on the roof of U.S. embassy in downtown Saigon.

His mission: to get the ambassador.

The war — which had taken more than 58,000 U.S. lives — was drawing to a close. More than 150,000 North Vietnamese troops were outside Saigon, ready to overwhelm the city.

It was time for U.S. personnel to leave. Thousands of South Vietnamese men, women and children who had worked with the U.S. military over the previous 20 years descended on the embassy, desperate to get out of the city.

Berry's mission had turned into a rescue.

“I land and I say, ‘I’m here to get the ambassador,’ and the guy says, ‘OK, but he’s not ready.’ ... So they load me up with Vietnamese and third-country nationals and off I go,” he said.

Over the next 18 hours, Berry and 70 other Marine, Navy and Air America pilots would fly non-stop from the embassy to ships waiting off the coast, ferrying nearly 7,000 U.S. embassy workers, foreign nationals and South Vietnamese citizens to safety.

"A lot of them were women and children," he said. "And they could only bring one small bag with them — no luggage."

His two-propeller copter, which normally carried 25 fully armored soldiers, was packed with 60 to 75 people every time it left the embassy's roof.

He's not sure how many people he rescued from Saigon that day, but he brought 14 helicopter loads out.

"No one was taking the time to count them out,” he said.

The images of Operation Frequent Wind would become some of the most symbolic of the Vietnam War.

Berry, who now lives in Florida, will be back in Iowa next week to speak about his role in the evacuation.

His presentation, "From Simpson to Saigon," takes place March 20 on the Simpson College campus in Indianola.

From Indianola to Vietnam

Berry was drafted in 1968, a month before he graduated from Simpson College.

It was a precarious year. The Tet offensive dealt a blow to U.S. forces, prompting CBS newsman Walter Cronkite to declare the country was "mired in stalemate."

A few weeks later, President Lyndon Johnson announced he would not seek re-election. In August, Chicago police beat war protesters outside the Democratic National Convention live on TV.

Berry’s father had been a Marine, so when he was drafted, that’s where he headed.

A poster in the recruiter’s office set him down the path to becoming a pilot.

“I’d only been on an airplane once in my life,” he said. “But I pointed at that poster said, ‘Ooh, could I do that?’”

He served a 13-month tour in Vietnam, flying U.S. troops in and out of combat and taking enemy fire.

Once his commitment was up, he stayed with the Marines back in the States, flying fixed-wing planes and serving as an instructor until he was relocated to Okinawa in 1974. He participated in evacuations in Cambodia and Vietnam early in 1975.

However, his group commander said if he wanted to be part of the Saigon evacuation, he’d have to go back to flying a CH-46 helicopter.

'The enemy is getting closer'

U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin called for the evacuation of Americans from Saigon on April 29, 1975.

“The enemy is getting closer — they were only a few miles outside of the city,” Berry said.

When the evacuation began that afternoon, Berry was ordered to get the ambassador out. But when he landed his helicopter on the embassy's roof, the ambassador refused to appear.

"He thought that somebody was going to cut a special deal and Saigon was going to be a free city somehow," Berry said. "So he waited until the last minute."

Berry was the first to land on the roof of the embassy that afternoon, scooping up the first round of evacuees.

Each time he returned, the ambassador refused to come out.

“You gotta give him a little credit for that,” Berry said. "He didn’t get all of his people out and he’s almost out of time, so now he’s trying to prolong this helicopter lift.”

Civilian evacuations that began in March ended one day earlier, when the North Vietnam Army began shelling the airport.

Although the enemy was within firing range, the helicopters involved in the Saigon airlift saw only minimal gunfire.

“I could see the lights of the enemy outside the city, coming down the road from Bien Hoa — but they weren’t coming that fast,” Berry said. “There wasn’t much resistance and I don’t think they were in a hurry to get there. We had a few small arms fire, but I think we only had one hit the helicopter.”

He said friendly fire was definitely on his mind. The South Vietnamese troops were well-armed, Berry said, and they weren’t being evacuated. When the communist troops arrived, those South Vietnamese troops would be in danger.

“I always thought they might be thinking, ‘If I ain’t getting out, then you ain’t going, either,’” he said. “I was parked on that roof. I was a pretty easy target.”

'The crowds don’t get any smaller'

The evacuation continued into the night, with wind and rain making the sorties increasingly difficult.

“The crowds don’t get any smaller, and there’s no time to really stop for rest — maybe we stop for 10 minutes for gas and a little coffee or they push an apple to you through the window, but that’s it,” Berry said.

Finally, at about 2 or 3 in the morning, Berry said he noticed that everything had gone quiet. No radio chatter. No sounds of other helicopters. Nothing.

In the confusion and rush of the evacuation, no one had bothered to radio Berry to tell him the evacuation had been shut down.

“So now I’m really frustrated and very irritated. I’m mad. I’m pissed — that’s the right word. I even get in a fight with the guy on the radio. But I don’t stop. I keep going,” Berry said.

At about 3 a.m., he flew back to the embassy for the last time, where Marines on the roof were ready to load up another round of evacuees.

“I tell him ... this helicopter’s not leaving this roof of the American embassy until the ambassador is on board," Berry said. "And in my best squeaky voice, I said, ‘The president says now.’”

Two minutes later, the ambassador was on board and heading out to sea.

"I think all he wanted was to be ordered,” Berry said.

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Once the ambassador was aboard the USS Blueridge, the evacuation was officially over.

But Berry and two other helicopters flew back to pick up the Marine security guards stationed at the embassy.

“We got all of the Marines out, but there were still thousands of Vietnamese crowding the embassy hoping to get out,” he said.

This is the part of the story that, 44 years later, still bring tears to his eyes.

“I think about my friends — my buddies who were killed — and I think about how sad it is,” Berry said. “Those guys had a great life ahead of them. For what purpose? This ignominious defeat. The evacuation of Saigon. We lost all of those guys, and now we’re just flying away? Really?”

Berry went on to serve as a Marine pilot for 25 years, retiring in 1993.

But it was those 18 hours in 1975 that has secured his place in history. His story has been featured in documentaries shown on The History Channel and he's appeared on talk shows with people like Henry Kissinger.

The Boeing Vertol CH-46 that he flew to evacuate the ambassador from Saigon was refurbished and is on display at the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum in San Diego, California.

From Simpson to Saigon

Simpson College graduate Gerry Berry is coming to town March 20 at the invitation of professor Bill Friedricks and the Iowa History Center. The presentation is free and open to the public.

WHEN: March 20, 6 p.m. reception, 7 p.m. program

WHERE: Hubbell Hall, Kent Campus Center, Simpson College, 701 North C. St., Indianola