The more they stay the same.
We’re all familiar with that old saying. Well, I found something today that proves that old saw true.
It seems that one of the State Department helicopters used in the evacuation of the Kabul embassy was used in another famous embassy evacuation. An aviation intel fan on twitter found the connection.
CH-46 BuNo 154038 was used by the Marines as part of Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of the US embassy in Saigon. The tweet above has photos of BuNo 154038 on the flight deck of the USS Hancock during Frequent Wind.
In 2012 154038 was transferred from the Marine Corps to the State department aviation division.
A quick note on how we know for sure it’s the same airframe. When an airframe enters government service it is issued a Bureau Number. That number does not change. The Phrog pictured above, a CH-46E operated by the US Department of State Air Wing with the registration N38TU, has BuNo 154038.