A Babylift flight arrives at San Francisco, 5 April 1975
Operation Babylift was the name given to the mass evacuation of children from South Vietnam to the United States and other Western countries (including Australia, France, West Germany, and Canada) at the end of the Vietnam War (see also the Fall of Saigon), on April 3–26, 1975. By the final American flight out of South Vietnam, over 3,300 infants and children had been airlifted, although the actual number has been variously reported. Along with Operation New Life, over 110,000 refugees were evacuated from South Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War. Thousands of children were airlifted from Vietnam and adopted by families around the world.
Overview
A pair of well-worn baby shoes worn by an orphan evacuated from Vietnam during Operation Babylift
Adoption agency Holt International as well as service organizations including Friends of Children of Viet Nam (FCVN), Friends For All Children (FFAC), Catholic Relief Service, International Social Services, International Orphans and the Pearl S. Buck Foundation petitioned the government to help evacuate the various orphans in their facilities in Vietnam. In their book, Silence Broken, Childhelp (International Orphans at the time) founders Sara O'Meara and Yvonne Fedderson chronicle their request from Lieutenant GeneralLewis William Walt to help with evacuations and finding homes for the Asian-American orphans.
Over 2,500 children were relocated and adopted out to families in the United States and its allies, including approximately 250 sent to Australia. The operation was controversial because there was question about whether the evacuation was in the children's best interest, and because not all the children were orphans.
When American businessman Robert Macauley learned that it would take more than a week to evacuate the surviving orphans due to the lack of military transport planes, he chartered a Boeing 747 from World Airways and arranged for 300 orphaned children to leave the country, paying for the trip by mortgaging his house.
Frederick M. "Skip" Burkle Jr. served as the medical director of Operation Babylift. He gathered the orphans in Saigon, accompanied them to Clark AB (Air Base) in the Philippines, and continued to care for them on the Boeing 747 across the Pacific Ocean to Los Angeles and then Long Beach Naval Support Activity.
A C-5A Galaxy, serial number 68-0218, flew the initial mission of Operation Babylift departing from Tan Son Nhut Airport shortly after 4 p.m. on April 4, 1975. Twelve minutes after takeoff, there was what seemed to be an explosion as the lower rear fuselage was torn apart. The locks of the rear loading ramp had failed, causing the door to open and separate, and a rapid decompression. Control and trim cables to the rudder and elevators were severed, leaving only one aileron and wing spoilers operating. Two of the four hydraulic systems were out of service. The crew wrestled at the controls, managing some control of the plane through changes in throttle settings, as well as using the one working aileron and wing spoilers. The crew descended to an altitude of 4,000 feet on a heading of 310 degrees in preparation for landing on Tan Son Nhut's runway 25L. About halfway through a turn to final approach, the rate of descent increased too rapidly. Seeing they could not make the runway, full power was applied to bring the nose up. The C-5 touched down briefly in a rice paddy, skidding for a quarter of a mile. Next, the aircraft became airborne again for a half mile before hitting a dike and breaking into four parts, some of which caught fire. According to DIA figures, 175 people survived and 138 people were killed in the crash, including 78 children and 35 Defense Attaché Office, Saigon personnel.
Legacy
The Vietnamese adoptee-run nonprofit, Operation Reunite, is using DNA testing to match adoptees with their Vietnamese families.
A memorial was unveiled in Holmdel, New Jersey, US in April 2015.
^Martin, Allison, The Legacy of Operation Babylift, Adoption Today journal, Volume 2, Number 4 March 2000. "On April 3rd, a combination of private and military transport planes began to fly more children out of Vietnam as part of the operation. Numbers vary, but it appears that at least 2,000 children were flown to the United States and approximately 1,300 children were flown to Canada, Europe and Australia."
^"People & Events: Operation Babylift (1975)"Archived 2022-06-25 at the Wayback Machine, PBS, American Experience. "During the final days of the Vietnam War, the U.S. government began boarding Vietnamese children onto military transport planes bound for adoption by American, Canadian, European and Australian families. Over the next several weeks, Operation Babylift brought more than 3300 children out of Vietnam."
^Operation BabyliftArchived 2015-05-11 at the Wayback Machine, PBS, Precious Cargo documentary. "At least 2,700 children were flown to the United States and approximately 1,300 children were flown to Canada, Europe and Australia. Service organizations such as Holt International Children's Services, Friends of Children of Viet Nam and Catholic Relief Service coordinated the flights."
^USAF / SecAF / CSAF / CMSAF – Senior Leaders, 'Biographies > Display > Major General Edward J. Nash'Archived 2020-06-16 at the Wayback Machine, USAF, Senior Leaders Biographies, 14 June 2020. "General Nash assumed command of the 62nd Military Airlift Wing, McChord Air Force Base, Wash., in August 1974. While under his command the wing participated in Operation Babylift, the evacuation of orphans from Saigon to the United States..."
Herrington, Stuart A.Peace with Honor? An American Reports on Vietnam 1973–75, Presidio Press (1983). For an account of the day of the plane crash, see pp. 137–140.
Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam is a documentary released in 2009 about the adoptees and volunteers as they examine their lives and the effects of this historic mission on their lives nearly 35 years later.
Daughter from Đà Nẵng is a 2002 documentary film about an Amerasian woman who returns to visit her biological family in Đà Nẵng, Vietnam after 22 years of separation and living in the United States, having been taken out of Vietnam as a child in Operation Babylift.
Precious Cargo – a 2001 documentary film on Operation Babylift and the return of eight adoptees twenty five years later
"Operation Babylift: The case of the disappearing orphans," by Helen Jacobus. Cover story of the New Statesman (London), May 11, 1984. pages 8–10; and follow-up story, "Mother Courage of Vietnam finds son in UK," by Jane Thomas, New Statesman, July 20, 1984, page 4.
External links
Operation Babylift from The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Digital Library.
Adopted Vietnamese International (AVI), based in Australia, has info on Babylift, particularly on where are the Australian adopted Vietnamese children today. Site managed and maintained by adopted Vietnamese.
