Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Humans or Helicopters? • followHIM Favorites • February 24 - March 2 • Come Follow Me

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

A dramatic story about a South Vietnamese major who flew a small plane to an aircraft carrier during the fall of Saigon, risking everything to rescue his family.SHOW NOTES/TRANSCRIPTSEnglish: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC209ENFrench: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC209FRGerman: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC209DEPortuguese: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC209PTSpanish: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC209ESYOUTUBEhttps://youtu.be/6_1iumB0_OMALL EPISODES/SHOW NOTESfollowHIM website: https://www.followHIMpodcast.comFREE PDF DOWNLOADS OF followHIM QUOTE BOOKSNew Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastNTBookOld Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastOTBookWEEKLY NEWSLETTERhttps://tinyurl.com/followHIMnewsletterSOCIAL MEDIAInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followHIMpodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Cofounder, Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsAmelia Kabwika : Portuguese Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Hello everyone, welcome to Follow Him Favorites. This is where John and I share a single story to go with each week's lesson. John, one section of the Doctrine and Covenants this week, section 18. I know you have a great story for this. In fact, I've heard it before. Hit it. Hank, there's so many things you could draw from section 18, but I'm going to focus on verse 10, the worth of souls is great in the sight of God. Now, Hank, I don't know how old you were in April of 1975. Okay. You know, I could have been a million years old. I don't remember. Yeah, how old was your spirit? How old was my spirit at that point? Yeah.

So what was going on was the fall of Saigon in the Vietnam War, but they were trying to evacuate the South Vietnamese out of Saigon, the commun War, but they were trying to evacuate the South Vietnamese out of Saigon. The communists were coming and it was going to be really, really bad. And so you can find pictures of people climbing on top of the embassy to get in helicopters to get out of there. There's an aircraft carrier called the USS Midway. The deck of this thing was filled with helicopters evacuating people.

April, I think was 29th or 30th of 75, there is a South Vietnamese major who gets into a little Cessna 01 bird dogs, basically like a little Cessna 172. Doesn't know where to go and heads out to sea. But he finally, he finds the midway. He flies over it. He waggles his wings. He tries the radio. Nothing works. I'll just read from history.net. The pilot dropped three paper notes from the plane. They blew over the side before the ship's crew could snatch them. On the next pass he stuffed a fourth note into his pistol's leather holster to weigh it down and sailors rushed to grab the little package after it hit the

deck. They read a scribbled message written on a crumpled chart of South Vietnam. And there's some misspellings, my Vietnamese. Can you move the helicopter to the other side? I can land on your runway. I can fly for one hour more. We have enough time to move. Please rescue me, Major Buong, wife and five child." They didn't know. They thought, let him ditch the plane next to the ship and we'll get him. But he had five children stuffed in this little Cessna. Hank, I gave a talk years ago about my first solo and I talked about my shoulder touching one end of the plane, my other shoulder touching my flight instructor's shoulder, her shoulder touching, they're crammed.

He's got five kids in there. And a wife. And a wife. And the wife is holding a newborn basically. Oh, John. Please rescue me. And Captain Larry Chambers has only been the skipper for four or five weeks. To make room, they literally pushed helicopters off the side of the ship.

Why? Because the worth of souls is what? It's worth it. Is great. And he's like, we've got to do this. We've got to rescue this. He's never landed on a carrier. He's got a Cessna that's a tail-draggers.

Instead of having, they call it tricycle landing gear where the nose gear is in front of you and like a tricycle, you know, the nose gear and two more. This one is dragging the tail. That's where the gear is going. So it's a whole different thing. He's trying to land on a carrier. The whole crew runs over. they're cheering, and this major gets out. His wife's holding a baby, these little kids. And Larry Chambers, the skipper,

thought, I'm going to get court-martialed because he had to move helicopters off the deck to make room for these. I pushed a $50 million helicopter off the side. Pushing these Hueys in the water, I'm like, wait, can I have one? But I love the story because he said, I felt my grandma, Larry Chambers said, talking to me, my conscience talking to me, saying, you're going to have to live with this decision for years, what are you going to do? And they rescued that little family because the worth of souls is great. So I love that story. He might say, I'm gonna lose my commission, I'm gonna lose my job, but it's worth it.

What's more important, humans or helicopters? John, what a classic story. The worth of souls is great in the sight of God. Wow, that's awesome. We hope you'll join us on our full podcast. It's called Follow Him. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. In fact, our guest, Dr. Steve Harper,

is going to do something with that verse 10 that is really going to blow your mind. It's special. Yes. So, we hope you'll join us over there and then come back next week. We'll do another Follow Him favorite.