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Last [Chat] Out of Saigon
Thomamelas
Only one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered User regular
Only one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered User regular
In 1975 it was pretty clear that the North Vietnamese were going to take Saigon and win the Vietnam War. The US Military had completely withdrawn years earlier and the only thing that seemed to slow the NVA down was a desire to not outrun their own supply lines. There had been a massive evacuation of war orphans and it became clear that many left behind would be subject to reprisals. This was the problem that faced Al Topping who was the head of the Saigon Pan Am office. The locals working for him were considered likely to suffer at the hands of the invading forces. So he began to gather a list of employees and some others that the State Department request be on the flight. As part of this, he offered his staff the chance to bring their immediate family. Which ended up being a bit larger then he expected. The flight could hold 300 or so people. He had a list of 500. He managed to get the list trimmed down but by the time he did, the FAA had declared the area a war zone and wouldn't allow commercial flights in or out. This wasn't an absurd concern. One of the airlift flights for Operation Babylift had crashed after an explosion suspected of being anti-aircraft fire had torn it's back door off.
Tense talks with the Pan Am home office managed to secure permission for one flight in. But the local commander of Tan Son Nhut was refusing to allow any South Vietnamese nationals onto the base and the plane. During the evacuation of Da Ning, the World Airways flights taking off had had people still trying to board them even as the aircraft taxied. So Al Topping paid off a South Vietnamese official to allow him to adopt all of the local staff and their families. This got him enough room to be able to get the four buses of staff and families onto the airbase. But that wasn't enough to get the airplane off the ground. The head of the airbase had demanded a massive bribe, and was handed a leather satchel full of cash on the tarmac.
When Flight #841 to Manila from Saigon took off, it had 463 people on board. It was laid out to support 375. The FAA had given extraordinary permission for people to sit in the aisle and stand during the flight. That was the last US airline flight out of Saigon. Within 48 hours the shelling of the city began and the final military evacuation was underway. Perhaps I'll write up Operation Frequent Wind in another post.
Tense talks with the Pan Am home office managed to secure permission for one flight in. But the local commander of Tan Son Nhut was refusing to allow any South Vietnamese nationals onto the base and the plane. During the evacuation of Da Ning, the World Airways flights taking off had had people still trying to board them even as the aircraft taxied. So Al Topping paid off a South Vietnamese official to allow him to adopt all of the local staff and their families. This got him enough room to be able to get the four buses of staff and families onto the airbase. But that wasn't enough to get the airplane off the ground. The head of the airbase had demanded a massive bribe, and was handed a leather satchel full of cash on the tarmac.
When Flight #841 to Manila from Saigon took off, it had 463 people on board. It was laid out to support 375. The FAA had given extraordinary permission for people to sit in the aisle and stand during the flight. That was the last US airline flight out of Saigon. Within 48 hours the shelling of the city began and the final military evacuation was underway. Perhaps I'll write up Operation Frequent Wind in another post.
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like when I saw the notification beads of sweat just started pouring down my face
i was in real fear you guys
Where will young Jewish men go to break into the funny books?
Check out my site, the Bismuth Heart | My Twitter
2 minutes was rather slow.
the prize is €50,000 and tutoring from professionals
the comedian in the final is someone who has done 11 gigs but is very attractive
i think i'm having an aneurysm
edit: the winner is determined by facebook votes
goddamnit
is he/she funny tho
I named mine Renly and made him look just like Renly, and you have no idea how happy this make me.
This is pretty much the best. It's like playing video games with my cat.
CREPES
not particularly
no one is ready to go professional after 11 gigs though
there must have been roughly zero screening process other than looking at pictures
Is today a holiday?
The armor you make for them is SO ADORABLE
twitch.tv/tehsloth
That way if you win you're still in the black
got a link to one of her sets?
Fuck owning a project car. We can get a project helicopter.
http://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/aucdsclnk?sl=91QSCI15158601
That helicopter is green as fuck
the venn diagram of alt comedy fans and craft beer drinkers is a perfect circle
that's awesome
you have no idea how many times i have been this close to placing a bid on a deuce and a half on one of those gov liquidation sites
Owning it used is like getting 441 years of car use. Hard to argue the economics.
About as many as I have.
I'm not gonna post it publicly for obvious reasons.
I mean I know people who have used a shit ton more drugs than that much more frequently over quite a long period of time.
it's a miracle that the winner wasn't a racist with a puppet or something
Can't link to someone trying to be a professional comedian?
I don't understand this?
wait, what is the obvious reason?
is that why you're dismissive
it's okay
this is a safe space to talk about ethics in comedy contests
*finger hovers over twitter outrage button*
If you were really mad you would press the tumblr outrage button.