Humanitarian Vietnam Mission Goes Untold

Pensacola retiree Stephen Burwinkel was a Navy Corpsman on the USS Kirk, a Destroyer Escort, just after the fall of Saigon. And he's about to be thrust into the national spotlight, as the story of the Kirk is finally told.

Bitterness at the end of the Vietnam War kept the Kirk's story out of the spotlight. But the ship is responsible for perhaps one of the most extraordinary humanitarian rescues of modern times. It led the remnants of the South Vietnamese Navy, and tens of thousands of refugees, to safe harbor when the North Vietnamese took over the South. As the 7th Fleet was leaving Vietnam, the Kirk received an order to return to the island of Con Son and lead the South Vietnamese ships to the Philippines. But helicopters were also headed toward the Kirk. As they landed and off-loaded refugees on the fantail of the ship, crewmen pushed the copters into the sea for the next one to land.

This story is told in depth in a series of reports on National Public Radio. You can see and hear them at NPR.org.

But we interviewed Burwinkel to hear about his extraordinary job--treating thousands of the sick and injured refugees who were escaping the new communist regime in South Vietnam.

"We encountered broken bones, fractures. You have to understand that these people were probably of the upper class and able to escape." says Burwinkel. He had little help as he triaged patients on multiple ships in a convoy that sailed to Subic Bay.

Burwinkel received the Meritorious Service Medal for his efforts, as did all of his shipmates. He calls it his 'No-Sleep Medal.' And he insists he's no hero. '"We were there, and we did what we were supposed to do," he says.

Stiill, Burwinkel is glad they Kirk is finally getting some recognition for that final humanitarian mission of the war in Vietnam.

While the story of the Kirk was buried for many years, the current Surgeon General of the Navy has taken interest in it. The Navy has produced a documentary about the exploits of the Kirk and her mission. It will be presented on October 20th at NAS Pensacola's IMAX Theater.