Where Is the REAL Hanoi Taxi Now
Final Hangar
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On February 12th, 1973, a gray and white Air Force C-141 Starlifter landed at Gia Lam Airport in North Vietnam with a big red cross painted on her tail. Forty American prisoners of war climbed aboard that airplane, some of them after five years in captivity, some after six, and one after eight and a half. Among them was Everett Alvarez Jr., the first American pilot shot down and captured over North Vietnam. That airplane was C-141A 66-0177, and the men who came home on her gave her a name that would stay with her for the rest of her life: The Hanoi Taxi.
But what happened to the Hanoi Taxi after that historic flight? Most people assume the airplane's story ended when those prisoners walked down the stairs at Clark Air Base. It didn't. She went back to work for more than thirty years, hauling troops, cargo, wounded soldiers and Americans in need around the world. She returned to Vietnam in 2004 to bring home the remains of two American servicemen, flew evacuation missions after Hurricane Katrina, and eventually became the last C-141 Starlifter still flying in the Air Force. Today, the Hanoi Taxi is preserved inside the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, where you can still walk up her ramp and stand inside the very airplane that brought those prisoners home.
If your father, grandfather, brother, husband or you yourself served in Vietnam, Korea or World War II, or if you remember watching the prisoners come home during Operation Homecoming in 1973, I'd truly love to hear your story in the comments. And if you ever wore one of those POW/MIA bracelets, tell me whose name was on it. Let's remember those names together.
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Sources:
National Museum of the United States Air Force (nationalmuseum.af.mil)
U.S. Air Force (af.mil)
Department of Defense (defense.gov)
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (vvmf.org)
National Archives (archives.gov)
U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian (history.state.gov)
Library of Congress (loc.gov)
Wikipedia: C-141 Starlifter, Operation Homecoming, Everett Alvarez Jr., Hanoi Hilton, 66-0177 “Hanoi Taxi”
20 Comments
Just a few years later, I found myself in Vietnam serving as a Military Policeman in DaNang. While I was there, I often drove through the DaNang Airbase on my way to other bases. There was a facility along the runway at the one end. There was a flagpole always at half-staff at the facility. I then learned that this was where the flights of the C-141s originated from! Those planes I saw flying up the Jersey coast each Friday, started at the DaNang Airbase. I also remember that there were hundreds of shiny aluminum caskets stacked in long rows at that facility. How grateful I was that I flew home on a Freedom Bird and not on a C-141 going to Dover.
Where Is the REAL Hanoi Taxi Now
Final Hangar
16,814 views
On February 12th, 1973, a gray and white Air Force C-141 Starlifter landed at Gia Lam Airport in North Vietnam with a big red cross painted on her tail. Forty American prisoners of war climbed aboard that airplane, some of them after five years in captivity, some after six, and one after eight and a half. Among them was Everett Alvarez Jr., the first American pilot shot down and captured over North Vietnam. That airplane was C-141A 66-0177, and the men who came home on her gave her a name that would stay with her for the rest of her life: The Hanoi Taxi.
But what happened to the Hanoi Taxi after that historic flight? Most people assume the airplane's story ended when those prisoners walked down the stairs at Clark Air Base. It didn't. She went back to work for more than thirty years, hauling troops, cargo, wounded soldiers and Americans in need around the world. She returned to Vietnam in 2004 to bring home the remains of two American servicemen, flew evacuation missions after Hurricane Katrina, and eventually became the last C-141 Starlifter still flying in the Air Force. Today, the Hanoi Taxi is preserved inside the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, where you can still walk up her ramp and stand inside the very airplane that brought those prisoners home.
If your father, grandfather, brother, husband or you yourself served in Vietnam, Korea or World War II, or if you remember watching the prisoners come home during Operation Homecoming in 1973, I'd truly love to hear your story in the comments. And if you ever wore one of those POW/MIA bracelets, tell me whose name was on it. Let's remember those names together.
đź”” Subscribe so you don't miss the next one đź””
Sources:
National Museum of the United States Air Force (nationalmuseum.af.mil)
U.S. Air Force (af.mil)
Department of Defense (defense.gov)
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (vvmf.org)
National Archives (archives.gov)
U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian (history.state.gov)
Library of Congress (loc.gov)
Wikipedia: C-141 Starlifter, Operation Homecoming, Everett Alvarez Jr., Hanoi Hilton, 66-0177 “Hanoi Taxi”
And i go to Wright Patterson every chance i get just to go see 177. Im so glad she's inside bldg 4 to be preserved forever.