It was a beautiful spring day in the first week of April 1975. One could not hear the Viet Cong shelling Saigon's Tan Son Nhut Air Base 600 miles west of Clark Air Base in the Philippines.

I was the airfield manager of the most active air base in Southeast Asia. I was fortunate enough to know and work with some of the most dedicated men and women in the Air Force — none more red, white and blue than Lt. Col. Jimmy Wills, who ran the Military Airlift Command efforts.

Jimmy and I had bonded during our two-year tours, golfing, eating at the "greasy spoon" and shuffling aircraft throughout the area night and day. Jimmy was an ROTC graduate from Indiana University and lived in Bloomington, as I recall.

The U.S. Embassy in Saigon was in a panic, evacuating hundreds of orphans designated to various adoption agencies in the States, and things were chaotic. The air routes were filled with planes in and out of Clark with those babies. The embassy was under siege while trying to evacuate its staff.

They had nearly 300 orphans manifested to bring back from Tan Son Nhut. Jimmy wanted a "piece of the action" and knew they were understaffed to handle that big of a load of babies.

A C-5A is a monster aircraft able to carry nearly 400 fully armed men. Jimmy called me to go with him on a flight that left at 0700 on 4 April, 1975. I told him that it would take 30 minutes to go to my quarters and get my flight gear.

The plane was No. 1 for takeoff when I got back. I got on the radio and told them to let the ladder down so I could get in. Jimmy said, "Bus, they moved up the time and we gotta go." I argued in vain to get in, but the advancement of the engines ended my pleas.

Jimmy and 78 orphans were killed when the clam-shell doors blew out at 23,000 feet. The pilot attempted to abort the mission back into Ton Son Nhut with his precious cargo but landed two miles short. Jimmy died the death of a hero with a baby in each arm.

Where do these kinds of men come from?

God bless America.

Retired Air Force Col. C.L. "Bus" Branson lives in Fort Worth, Texas.