In mid-March General Smith requested the Pentagon to prioritise all South Vietnamese equipment requests and he passed on General Khuyen 's request for the LSTs previously proposed by General Murray . In a 22 March cable to Admiral Gayler he asked the Admiral to airlift equipment other than tanks to South Vietnam and " to pull out all stops in moving material ... even if it requires withdrawing it from US forces . In my judgment , that will be necessary . Time has become most precious out here and unless the South Vietnamese can buy enough time to properly execute their retrograde plans ... the situation will become desperate . " Gayler endorsed Smith 's request and promptly sent it on to the Joint Chiefs of Staff . On 26 March General Smith diverted tugs and barges that had been used in ferrying supplies up the Mekong to Phnom Penh to assist in the evacuation of Danang . An Alternate DAO Programs Activity Office was established at Nakhon Phanom in April to administer military assistance and on 18 April the chief of the military assistance division was directed to proceed to Nakhon Phanom , it was expected that up to 100 staff would follow , however this movement was overcome by events . On 4 April 1975 35 DAO employees acting as escorts during Operation Babylift were killed when their USAF C-5 transport plane crashed near Tan Son Nhut
C-5 transport plane crashed near Tan Son Nhut
1975 Tân Sơn Nhứt C-5 accident
Defense Attaché Office, Saigon (1973–1975)