Saigon. That night the ARVN 3rd Airborne Brigade arrived on trucks at Phan Rang AB having retreated from the M'Đrăk Pass and it proceeded to deploy around the base and clear away VC around the base perimeter. On 2 April the 2nd Air Division commander BG Nguyễn Văn Lương left Phan Rang in his C-47 to go for meetings at Tan Son Nhut setting off panic among the RVNAF and ARVN forces at the base who believed he was abandoning them and leading to a chaos as panicked South Vietnamese swarmed aircraft that departed haphazardly for bases further south. Two RAAF C-130s landed at the base to evacuate civilians and were mobbed as they tried to leave. Order was eventually restored by the 3rd Airborne Brigade as the refugees were evacuated. On the morning of 3 April 1975 the RVNAF at Phan Rang launched a heliborne operation comprising more than 40 UH-1s and 6 CH-47s escorted by A-37s to rescue the remnants of the ARVN 2nd, 5th and 6th Airborne Battalions that had been cut off at the M'Đrăk Pass successfully evacuating over 800 soldiers. That day the PAVN 10th Division captured Cam Ranh Bay and Cam Ranh Air Base north of Phan Rang. The approached Phan Rang and over the next 2 days picked up over 3500 South Vietnamese refugees. Also that day 6th Air Division commander BG Pham Ngoc Sang met with the III Corps commander LG Nguyễn Văn Toàn at Phan Thiết and Sang was given responsibility for holding Phan Rang. On 4 April the 2 remaining provinces of II Corps were incorporated into II Corps and LG Nguyễn Vĩnh Nghi arrived at Phan Rang to take over the defense of the area from BG Sang. The Phan Rang A-37s continued to operate under difficult conditions with ground crews being forced to service aircraft in Flak jackets due to rocket and mortar fire on the base and intermittent supplies after Highway 1 was cut off east of Xuân Lộc. Half of the wing was rotated daily to Tan Son Nhut for servicing, resupply and crew rest. From 7 to 8 April the 2nd Airborne Brigade flew into Phan Rang to replace the 3rd Airborne Brigade which moved back to Saigon. On 8 April the 3rd Airborne Battalion cleared Highway 1 and recaptured the villages of Bà Râu () and Ba Thap () from the VC and the