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USAF

L A S T M O N T H , for the second time in a little morethan two years , U. S. wives and children wereevacuated from a potential war zone. In October1962 it was Cub a; in Febru ary 1965 it was So uthVietnam. They went back to Guantanamo six weekslater. The big quest ion today is , will they go backto Saigon and other cities of South Vietnam?With the dramatic escalat ion of U. S. part icipat ion,following President Johnson's February 7th ordersending Na vy and Air Force planes over North Viet-n a m , h is decision to pull out the dependents w asprobably wise. But scarcely any of them wanted toleave. Else Baker , wife of U. S. Military Assis tanceCommand info rmat ion officer Col. Lee Baker (anda u th o r of January ' s Pos t of the Month fea ture onSaigon) had 24 hours ' not ice "to get out of town,"as she put it ."With no ch i ld r e n , it ca me as something of a sur-prise to find that I was on the second plane out,"sh e wrote f rom B a n g k o k , w h e r e she is now await ing"in temporary exile" the completion of her husband'st o u r next month .No one can say for sure when and if dependentswill re turn to South Vie tnam . They migh t t ake hear t ,however , f rom a s ta tement a high officer ma d e to usat the Pentagon that rainy February Sunday, rightaf te r LBJ's "orderly w ithdra wa l" edict was an-nounced."Give us 12 m o n t h s and they ' l l be back," he said A . A .LEAVING "THE UGLY L I T T L E WAR" on he r doors tep, a y oung serv-ic e wife heads for the c ha r te red t rans po r t t ha t will evacuate h e rfrom Vietnam. Her husband, wear ing regulat ion combat boots ,be l t -ca r ry ing kni fe and .45 pistol, has her loaded purse s lung overh is shoulder.

WIVES AND C H I L D R E N L E A V E VIETNAM-WILL T H E Y G O B A C K ?

r l | Mr a w a l of a l l U.S. o f many that went o n th roughout a tense w e e k a f te r Pres ident Johnson o n February 7t h dec reed a n "orderly with-ta ry a n d c i v i l i an gov e rnmen t dependen ts f rom V i e tnamm-mmm-m , , . U S A F

U . S . A I R F O R C E

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U S A FKATHERINE WESTMORELAND, wife of four-star Gen. WilliamC. Westmoreland, top U. S. military commander in Vietnam,wearing many welcoming leis, talks with her daughter atHonolulu International Airport upon arrival February 14th.They were among 76 evacuees who flew by jetliner non-stopfrom Saigon to the islands.

U S A FREGINA THROCKMORTON, wife of Lt. Gen. John L. Throck-morton, U. S. deputy commander in Vietnam, smiles upon see-ing her father-in-law, a retired Army colonel, right, at theHonolulu airport. Her Army captain son Tom was woundedin action 40 miles from Saigon February 9th and flown toDewitt Hospital at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

SMALL TRAVELLERS Kathy Baer, 1, and sister Mary Ann, 3, stayclose to their mother, Mrs. R. L. Baer (in background), wife ofa U. S. embassy employee in Saigon, as shes goes throughcustoms. Kathy is held by Trav is Red Cross volunteers chair-man Lorraine Davis, wife of Maj. Robert Davis, and Mary Annholds on to WAF T. Sgt. Sa r ah Sellers. Pat Scha l le r

LINDA OWEN AND KITTEN, arriving at Trav is Air Force Base near San Franciscofrom Saigon, are welcomed by Travis employee Betty Meyer, center, and airman'swife Mrs. Alfred L. Corbin, two of the many Family Service volunteers whodropped everything to aid returning dependents. Linda and "Buttons" wereamong 163 passengers on a Pan Am chartered jet which flew non-stop fromTokyo to the big MATS mainland terminal February llth.P at S c h a l l e r

TWO VOLUNTEERS who eased arrival and subsequent depar-ture problems of dependents were Evelyn Horst, left, wife ofS . M. Sgt. James L. Horst, and Mrs. James W. Chapman, wifeof the 1501st Air Transport Wing commander at Travis. Herethey assist one of the evacuees. Five hours after landing, allbut two of the 163 passengers had departed for home. S c h a l l e r