THE INTERVIEW: AL TOPPING (PART 2 OF 3)

Actor James Earl Jones

Portrayed Al Topping

in 1990's "Last Flight Out"

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MM: Wasn't that the same week of the crash of a Lockheed C-5A Galaxy carrying orphans to the United States?

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AT: That was on April 4, and I was at the airport that day helping to load the plane. They were using our airstairs and my buddy from Continental Airlines was with me. They buttoned down and took off, and we watched their departure, and then turned around to walk back to our office. Just a few minutes later there was a column of black smoke. Suddenly we saw helicopters around that site and I called the US Embassy and they confirmed that the C-5 had crashed. At that time we had no idea what happened. But within 24-hours, a Connecticut-based organization called AmeriCares advised us that Pan Am was flying in with two chartered Boeing 747's to evacuate not only the orphan survivors, but others who were desperate to get out. This is something I'll never forget. Out 747's came in with all-volunteer crews. We thought that the C-5 crash might have involved sabotage. So, as we were loading the babies one at a time up the steps, we had to make sure that someone had not put explosives in their clothing;. We had to be sure. Here I am carrying a little baby up the air stairs and thinking there might be explosives placed in a diaper; it was an awful situation. If you could imagine: aboard a 747, cardboard boxes belted into the seats carrying three-hundred or more screaming babies at one time with the stench of urine everywhere. And these people were going to fly from Vietnam to California!

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MM: What was your flight route?

AT: Our route was normally Saigon-Manila, which was three hours, over to Guam--that's another three hours--then Guam-Honolulu, that's seven hours, then finally Honolulu to the West Coast--that's another five hours. It is an 18-hour trip. But these trips we routed to Yokata Air Base in Japan, then Hawaii--West Coast. The airplane that arrived in San Francisco was met by President Gerald Ford. Some of the babies were sick and some had expired on the trip. With the second 747, we had set up the schedule so that we would not have two 747's on the ground at the same time. We felt that would represent too many assets just sitting there. So, just as soon as the first plane was lifting off, the second one was on final approach.

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MM: One of those babies who survived is my new friend Dr. Matt Steiner?

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AT: Exactly. He was actually about eight years old at the time. I've been in touch with him. In fact a book has been written about him called "Escape from Saigon: How a Vietnam War Orphan Became an American Boy, by Andrea Warren.

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MM: Your family had to be worried sick about your safety throughout all this. How did you get word to him that you were all right?

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AT: Actually, through Jeff Kriendler (Pan Am's Vice President of Corporate Communications). Jeff was in New York and he would get word to my mother to relay information as to my status personally. We didn't have fax machines, we used Quip machines, and I had my wife over there with me. In fact, when I first went over to Vietnam I was single. And I came back to San Francisco and married my fiancee' in March 1973. Talk about a culture shock, we spent our honeymoon in Hawaii, and then went right on to Vietnam.

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MM: So, there you were monitoring Citizen Band radios, the Armed Forces Radio Network, local television and radio, and colleagues from other companies. How did you assemble the evacuation plan without endangering lives?

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AT: My first concern was, 'How do we know when we leave?' because operations appeared normal on the surface; however beneath that surface a churning of activity was going on that told me this could not last much longer. You couldn't wait too long. So, as the government began lifting restrictions with allowing the orphans to get out, I found out that I could get our people out of the country if I could formally adopt them. I got our personnel guy to get me all the paperwork we needed, and we filled out piles of forms that said basically, that Al Topping was adopting 360 people!

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MM: But you had over 700 names. How did you decide which were legitimate?

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AT: It was awful, because the company said we could evacuate all of our employees and their immediate families. In the United States that meant a wife or a husband and children. But over there 'immediate family' meant everybody. So, I had to go back and explain that I could be responsible for only immediate family. I didn't want to tell our people that absolutely, positively, you cannot bring your mother. I didn't say that, but they knew they couldn't bring their mothers, fathers and grandmothers. So, eventually we got the number down to 303. Then the next challenge was to determine when this flight would operate, and I couldn't tell anyone.

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Finally, two weeks before we left, I was taking up residence at the airport. I had already sent my wife back to the States. I was living in a trailer because I didn't want to be stuck downtown if the situation became unglued. So, as I was pacing the floor at night, I looked at the calendar ad realized that May 1st was May Day, the communist holiday, and I knew that would be the day they would launch the offensive. So, looking at our schedule, I decided which flight to use without looking suspicious , because it was our scheduled flight anyway.

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I decided that April 24th would be our day to leave and I didn't tell our employees until 24 hours beforehand. I told them to be prepared to leave immediately. That particular morning we had rain, and I received a call from my ticket office manager who said that the office was filled with our people and how do we get them out of the office on buses to the airport. I said, "Anyway you can". And somehow we got it done, and I had him leave a note on the door that said 'Temporarily Closed', I met them at the airport checkpoint and from there we began boarding.

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[In Part 3--our Final Installment, Al discusses some very tense moments at the airport, and concludes our visit by discussing the filming of the movie, "Last Flight Out"].