it's been 50 years since the final days of the war in Vietnam david Martin now with some of the men who bore witness to the fall of Saigon people poured from behind buildings and revetments this is what the end of the Vietnam War looked like south Vietnamese soldiers swarming a Panama airliner to save themselves from the rapidly advancing North Vietnamese army they left their wives their children their aged parents on the runway while they forced their own way on board a rabble of young enlisted men cbs News correspondent Bruce Dunning was on board the plane raced down the taxiway swerving to avoid abandoned vehicles perhaps even running over people this every man for himself rout played out across South Vietnam as communist forces from the north launched their final offensive the question was not will they attack at some point but when will they do it now 83 Stuart Harrington was one of only a handful of American military personnel still left in Vietnam the map in my office began to show more and more red arrows all pointing south president Gerald R Ford called South Vietnam's collapse a great human tragedy and ordered the immediate airlift of Vietnamese orphans some of those put aboard the plane had been born only weeks ago cbs News correspondent Murray Fromson witnessed what happened next the huge plane crashed into a field about 5 miles from the end of the runway 78 orphans and 35 Americans were killed what can one say except when will the misery in this country ever stop with Vietnam rapidly approaching what Secretary of State Henry Kissinger called the worst case he cabled American Ambassador Graham Martin "We must evacuate our people and do so as soon as possible." Americans and Vietnamese flooded Tan Son Nhat Airport outside Saigon but enemy shelling killed two Marines standing guard there darwin Judge and Charles McMahon the last Americans to die in Vietnam the North Vietnamese bombed and rocked the runway at Tan Son Nhat so the runway became unusable retired Marine Gerry Barry was a helicopter pilot aboard the Armada of American ships off the coast helicopter the last resort and at 10:45 on the morning of 29 April 1975 Ambassador Graham Martin gave the order to commence Operation Frequent Wind which became the largest helicopter evacuation in history frantic to find a way out civilians mobbed the US embassy the last place the last hope the last refuge where you could go and maybe still get a helicopter there were women at the gates just saying "Please just take my baby take my baby." And we had to tell them "We cannot take your baby." Jerome Thomas was a Marine Guard at the embassy there were people that were getting crushed because of the crowd in the back were pushing you know the crowd inside the embassy grounds is just huge and it's never getting any smaller you don't know how this thing is working how it's going to end that's Berry's helicopter landing in the embassy parking lot i uh actually landed at the embassy about 1:00 and said "My orders are to pick up the ambassador." The Marine Security Guard runs into the embassy comes back and says "Well the ambassador is not ready to go." Instead Berry and 70 other helicopter crews began lifting out Americans and Vietnamese berry's call sign was Lady Ace 9 and here's his voice from 50 years ago this is Lady Roger where I find it this time with our passengers as darkness fell Jerome Thomas was ordered to lower the American flag and this was the last time the American flag was going to fly over Vietnam 19-year-old Marine takes down the flag for the last time heartbreaking america's war in Vietnam was now in its final hours and now it's probably somewhere around 4 in the morning i can see the tanks coming down the road you could see the tanks north Vietnamese tanks because their lights are on they're driving down the highway everybody was afraid the North Vietnamese army was advancing on Saigon everybody knew these were the last birds out these were the freedom birds okay let's pick it up here looks like things are about to close up and uh we want to be able to give them the support they need and go ahead and max it out that's Harrington maxing it out in the embassy parking lot get into a double line everybody's going to go nobody will be left behind he I repeated that over and over and over that everyone was going to go and I really believed it they want everybody in the embassy robert put everybody in and get in there that's the last picture taken of me in Vietnam it looks like a man who knows it's over yeah there was no doubt about it there were 420 Vietnamese still in the parking lot when new orders came in you are to land on the rooftop and deliver a message which I say again to deliver a message all US must come out now harrington had promised nobody left behind but orders were orders i said to the Vietnamese "I got to take a leak" and I walked into the door of the embassy and scooted up the stairs. What did it feel like telling that that lie i felt horrible i felt like I had given them my word that our country had given them our country's word and it all went to crap i land on the embassy roof at 4:56 in the morning on 30 April 1975 and I called the Marine Security Guard over and I said "You go tell Ambassador this helicopter's not leaving the roof until he's on board." And then my best aviator voice I said "the president sends" order from the president did you have authority to I have no authority to do that at all but I mean there's got to be an end here two minutes later his whole entourage are up they're ready to go ambassador Graham Martin brought the American flag with him so now I'm flying out and of course I yell do the call sign tiger tiger tiger which means the ambassador's out so everybody knows it was late afternoon in Washington when Henry Kissinger announced the news our ambassador uh left has left and the evacuation can be said to be uh can be said to be completed except it wasn't here's Kissinger giving an off the record talk to the Army War College seen here for the first time come back from the press conference and I find out that they had left the Marines behind that were guarding the embassy the last American fighting men in Vietnam were barricaded on the roof as Saigon was about to fall it's been so many years now their sergeant Juan Valdez is 87 now and living in a memory care unit but some things you don't forget we thought for sure that we were going to be left there kind of swallow heart you know uh because by that time the tanks were passing by from the uh Vietnamese it felt like the Alamo for a while doug Potratz was on the roof with Valdez we didn't know if we were going to be the the last people and be overrun the question that was going through everybody's mind was should we fight or should we surrender and everybody there to a man was like we're fighting you know cuz uh Marines never surrender it was the lowest point I think in my life we're thinking about all the people that have died literally thousands and thousands of Americans and it was all gone we were there for two two and a half maybe three hours of waiting and then all of a sudden at a distance we saw two choppers coming back sir there are 33 to 35 more uh Americans on top of that embassy for you to take out two helicopters went back for the Marines the first one picked up 22 and the second the final 11 11 packs on board including the commander all the Americans are out that is it this blurry picture captured the moment i was the last one to go aboard why were you the last one because I was in charge of them and whether I stayed behind so be it you know but uh you always take care of your men first the last man out last man out yeah