Gia Lam Airport

Gia Lam Airfield (French: Aérogare de Gia Lam) was built in 1936 (1936), according to an urban plan laid out by French architect Ernest Hébrard over a decade earlier. Hébrard was hired by the city of Hanoi's Urban Planning and Architecture Services department in 1923 to supervise a number of urban renewal projects,[2] including a new industrial area in Gia Lâm District, on the eastern bank of the Red River. Hébrard's plan for Gia Lam included a renovated railway station, along with space for factories, industrial establishments, and the new airfield. Upon its completion, it was one of two major airfields in the Hanoi area, the other being the (now-disused) Bach Mai Airfield. The airfield itself was constructed according to a design by French architect Félix Godard.[3]

On September 26, 1940, as part of the Invasion of French Indochina, Japanese forces took possession of the airfield, maintaining control throughout World War II, until their surrender to the Việt Minh during the August Revolution. Soon afterwards, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed, with Việt Minh leader Hồ Chí Minh as head of government. France initially accepted the new government, but this position changed when negotiations about the future of Vietnam as a state within the French Union collapsed. Guerrilla fighting began between Việt Minh fighters and the French, and on December 19, 1946, in response to attacks on French installations in and around Hanoi, French troops re-occupied the airfield.[4]

Gia Lam and Bach Mai later became the two major logistics bases supporting French operations at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.[5] Much of the equipment sent to the remote French military base at Dien Bien Phu passed through Gia Lam airfield, including the ten French M24 Chaffee tanks assigned to the isolated stronghold in northwestern Vietnam, which were each dismantled into 180 individual parts and flown to Dien Bien Phu on heavy cargo aircraft. After their defeat at Dien Bien Phu and the following 1954 Geneva Peace Accords, French forces, obliged to leave Vietnam, handed over the airfield to the Viet Minh. Gia Lam airfield was thereafter taken over by Ho Chi Minh's North Vietnamese government and used by the VPAF as their main airbase in the Hanoi area.

Repatriated US POWs at Gia Lam, 1973

During the Vietnam War, the American Joint Chiefs of Staff placed Gia Lam on a list of 94 recommended bombing targets in North Vietnam, identifying it as a major airbase and as a storage location for petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL).[6] All North Vietnamese airfields were removed from the USAF's "restricted target" list in April 1967, and Gia Lam was one of six deemed suitable for fast jet operations. As a result, it sustained heavy damage as part of Operation Rolling Thunder, suffering repeated bomber attacks.[7]

Following the cease-fire mandated by the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973, Gia Lam was the site of Operation Homecoming, the return of American POWs held by the North Vietnamese. The first repatriation, effected by the United States Air Force's Military Airlift Command, happened on February 12, 1973, when C-141s of the 63d Military Airlift Wing, flying from Clark Air Base in the Philippines, flew to Gia Lam and returned with a total of 116 former POWs.[8] The first C-141 to return came to be known as the Hanoi Taxi, named after the writing on the flight engineer's panel by the POWs aboard the plane for the freedom flight. Arizona Senator John McCain was one of the POWs who flew home from Gia Lam on the Hanoi Taxi. From February 12 to April 4, there were 54 C-141 missions flying out of Hanoi, bringing the former POWs home.[9]