Vietnam War, including aero-medical evacuations conveying wounded soldiers back to Australia, generally via RAAF Base Butterworth, Malaysia. Initially both C-130A and E models were employed for such evacuations, but only C-130Es were assigned to this task from May 1967, as they offered more comfortable conditions and were capable of flying directly between South Vietnam and Australia if required. By the end of February 1968, No. 37 Squadron had a strength of 207 personnel: eighty-five aircrew, including fifty-one officers, and 122 ground staff, including three officers. The squadron transported the last Australian forces out of Vietnam in December 1972, following the Federal government's decision to withdraw from the conflict. As well as participating in military exercises and overseas peacekeeping commitments, the Hercules became a familiar sight in the Southern Pacific, called on for relief operations following many natural disasters including tsunamis in New Guinea, cyclones in the Solomons and Tonga, and fires and floods throughout Australia. It played a major role in the evacuation of civilians following Cyclone Tracy in Darwin in 1974–75; a No. 37 Squadron C-130E was the first aircraft to touch down in Darwin following the disaster. The squadron contributed eleven aircraft to the relief effort, carrying 4,400 passengers and of cargo. No. 37 Squadron aircraft took part in Operation Babylift, the US-led effort to evacuate the orphaned children of American servicemen from Vietnam in April 1975. Later that month, two of the squadron's aircraft were assigned to the United Nations (UN) to transport supplies throughout South East Asia; the C-130s' Australian roundels were painted over with UN symbols to signify the mission's neutrality. Commencing operations in May, the aircraft flew supplies into Laos and transported cargo between Thailand, Butterworth, Hong Kong and Singapore, completing ninety-one sorties by the time the mission ended in early June. The Hercules also evacuated Australian embassy personnel from Saigon, South Vietnam, and Phnom Penh, Cambodia, following the end of the Vietnam War. No. 37 Squadron was awarded the Gloucester Cup by the Governor General in June 1976 for its performance in 1974–75. In January–February 1979, two No. 37 Squadron C-130Es evacuated Australian and other foreign embassy staff from Tehran, shortly before the collapse of royal rule during the Iranian Revolution. The same year, the squadron began operations with two ex-Qantas Boeing 707s, handing them over to No. 33 Flight (later No. 33 Squadron) at the beginning of 1981. No. 37 Squadron transported