Phạm Quang Khiêm

Khiêm got his entire family out, except his youngest brother in the ARVN. He was stationed at Vũng Tàu. After the communists took over, he was sent to a brain-washing camp for two years. On 1 August 1992, he was reunited with Khiêm and his family through the ODP program.

On January 30, 1991, Khiêm was flying a Boeing 737 from Raleigh NC to Washington National Airport. Khiêm was approaching the runway but the plane taking off that runway aborted forcing Khiêm to land on runway 33 (a shorter runway). Khiêm realigned to runway 33 and prepared for landing. Runway 33 was even shorter because of the Potomac River on one end and The Pentagon on the other. Khiêm held a steady speed and tried to touch down on the runway at 500 feet instead of 1000 feet. Khiêm dropped 5 knots slamming the nose and wheels on the runway with 87 passengers on board.

Saigon Lady was transferred to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on January 30, 1989, where it has been for over 28 years until it was transferred to the National Warplane Museum in 2019 for restoration and preparation for public display.

On April 19, 1985, Khiêm and his family visited Selfridge ANGB to see the plane that brought his family freedom after ten years.

When Captain Mastronardi found out Khiêm was in America, he sent Khiêm $500 ($2,200+ today). Khiêm and his family then settled in Dayton, Ohio, the birthplace of flight, and home to Wright-Patterson AFB. In the mid-1980s, Khiêm was hired by Piedmont Airlines, (later merged with USAir and now US Airways) and moved to the right seat in only three years.

Phạm Quang Khiêm (born December 27, 1946) was a first lieutenant and co-pilot in the South Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) during the Vietnam War. Khiêm was a cargo pilot with the 53rd Tactical Wing of the 5th Air Division stationed at Tan Son Nhut. He flew several missions into communist-occupied Pleiku in hopes of rescuing VNAF personnel. On 3 April 1975, Khiêm organized a plan to steal a C-130a and gather 53 people to rescue them from the North Vietnamese communists. Later, Khiêm became pilot for Piedmont Airlines until 2006.

At the end of March 1975, the North Vietnamese had already taken half of South Vietnam. Citizens were fleeing as well as soldiers creating chaos throughout the country. Both civilians and officers were hitching military aircraft to escape the North Vietnamese. At the end of March 1975, the NVA was pushing towards the coast to strike Qui Nhơn, Tuy Hòa, and Nha Trang.

28 March 1975, Khiêm flew one of the last missions to Da Nang at 11:00 pm, the night before its loss. When he landed and taxied to the ramp, an ARVN major jumped into the aircraft to get a seat. Khiêm knew that the thousands of people would rush the airplane after seeing the major, so Khiêm kicked him off. Khiêm was a First Lieutenant, and the aircraft commander was searching the terminal for his family. But, the ramp was filled with refugees almost immediately anyway. Around 20,000 pounds of cargo on board, so Khiêm yelled at them to offload first. The crowd was too chaotic, so Khiêm told the loadmaster to do unloading and loading through the ramp in the back of the C-130. Once finished, people rushed onto the aircraft. Khiêm started the engines, scattering many, allowing Khiêm to taxi out.

31 March 1975, Khiêm flew several missions in the evacuation of Nha Trang. The following day, Qui Nhơn, South Vietnam's third-largest city was captured by the North Vietnamese. The next target for the North Vietnamese was Nha Trang. Khiêm just made it just like he did in Da Nang.

2 April 1975, Khiêm caught a ride on a C-130 "bladder bird" into Phan Rang, in hopes to pinpoint his younger brother, who was an airman there. Khiêm wanted to take him back to Saigon to be with the rest of their family. Khiêm couldn't find him, so left without him. On the way back to Saigon, Khiêm thought if Phan Rang is lost, then the communists will come to Saigon. Khiêm started to devise a plan to escape South Vietnam with his family. Khiêm heard that Singapore was looking for pilots so that was where he would go. VNAF Pilots started talking about stealing planes with their families; so, Command ordered the men to fuel the aircraft only enough to complete their missions. This created a major problem for Khiêm. Another was finding someone to help a family escape.

The officials had no clue what to do with them. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was out of the country for another two weeks. The Singapore Air Defense Command (SADC) was just renamed and reconstructed into the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) on 1 April 1975, just two days before Khiêm arrived.

One of Khiêm's close friends was Major Nguyen Canh Huu in the South Vietnam Air Force and he was in Khiêm's sister squadron the 437th Squadron. They discussed the escape and Khiêm told him they must be the first otherwise there wouldn't be a second. Major Canh's family was in Da Lat, and he wanted to get them to Saigon before leaving. On 2 April, Da Lat was overrun by the communists and Nguyen lost contact with them. After that, he was prepared to escape. On 3 April, all the C-130s were used on bombing missions and Khiêm was number one standby for the mission planning board, but Khiêm needed to tell his family his plan to escape. Khiêm told an officer he didn't feel good and agreed to drop Khiêm to the bottom of the list. Khiêm ran home and told one of his brothers to keep his family close to home because they were all gathered in Saigon. Khiêm told his family to rush to the Long Thanh Airfield (known by the US as Bearcat Base) as soon as they heard from him. Long Thanh was originally a US Army airbase that Khiěm had landed many times in training. It was closed and deserted since the US withdrawal in 1973.

On January 24, 1971, Phạm Quang Khiêm nearly died almost ending his flight career before it started. After a year of training in the states, Khiêm was sent to Phan-Rang AFB by the VNAF to start "In Country Training" with the USAF on a C-123K. Khiêm was assigned to fly with 1LT. Minh and their American Instructor, Cpt. John Mastronardi. Minh was the Aircraft Commander in the left seat and in the right, Khiêm switched with Captain Mastronardi to execute co-pilot duties. One day, they had an assignment to transfer 48 M107 175 mm bullet heads from Bien-Hoa Air Base to a US FSB 113 kilometers north near the Cambodian border. They had to land in an isolated area for a safe distance from any airport facilities since they carried high explosive material. They landed on the short dirt strip, Bù Gia Mập Air Strip (aka Djamap). The runway was 3000' on top of a 1620' hill. Co-Pilots (in this training) weren't allowed to make any landing on any runway shorter than 3600'. Minh was supposed to handle this flight, but Captain Mastronardi kept Khiêm in the right seat, believing he could handle the landing after previous successful landings. Khiêm was a young pilot and didn't know the difference between a short runway and a long one. It was a hostile area, so they had to come in high and drop fast. They came down to 2000' at 78 knots and when the C-123K was about 20 feet in the air crossing the end of the runway Khiêm decided to cut the power to idle causing the aircraft to drop touching down extremely hard. The left main landing gear fell into the belly wrecking the wheel and scratched all the red dirt on the runway skyrocketing into the cockpit. Khiêm and Minh were blinded. Captain Mastronardi immediately reversed the right engine, bringing the aircraft back, stopping the aircraft. If Captain Mastronardi had not stopped the plane, the whole aircraft might have run off the dirt strip, dropping hundreds of yards exploding down the hill.

In November 1969, Khiêm went to Lackland AFB to learn English as a cadet. At Randolph AFB, he earned his basic pilot training, then moved on to Keesler AFB, where he flew the T-28 Trojan. Khiêm also trained at Lockbourne AFB from October–December 1970. Eventually, he was assigned to fly pilot-in-command of C-123K aircraft before moving up to the 53rd Tactical Wing, 435th Transport Squadron as a C-130A pilot.

Phạm Quang Khiêm was born on December 27, 1946, in Vĩnh-Long, Vietnam. Khiêm had nine siblings and all of his brothers were in the military. Khiêm had three children: two in South Vietnam and one in the United States of America.

Khiêm's house was a mile from the airport and ran home and told his family to leave. But there was a hindrance, Khiêm and Nguyen were in different squadrons, and would not usually fly together. Khiêm could not even get into the squadron area because the guards did not know him. But the airplane Khiêm was supposed to escape with had mechanical problems, and the 437th had to borrow the 435th's C-130a HCF 460, nickname "Saigon Lady", and would let Khiêm in the area. Now Khiêm had to get rid of Canh's co-pilot. The co-pilot let Khiêm fly gladly because he wanted the rest of the day off to prepare for his date.