Operation Babylift recalled 40 years later

Orphans who were adopted in US reunite with servicemen who evacuated them

As the United States was pushed out of Vietnam in 1975, and the Viet Cong were making a final push to capture Saigon, the fate of thousands of Vietnamese orphans was uncertain until then-US president Gerald Ford ordered the remaining US forces to evacuate the children.

Forty years after the final flight of Operation Babylift lifted off Vietnamese soil, 20 evacuees and their adopted families gathered on Saturday for a reunion with some of the servicemen who took part in the rescue.

“Operation Babylift is one of the few great things to come from the Vietnam tragedy,” said Lana Mae Noone, organizer of the event, which was staged at the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Noone created the website Vietnam Babylift, which aims to connect adoptees, their families and veterans involved with the mission. In all, 2,547 children were carried away and adopted by families in the US and allied countries.

Noone, 68, of Garden City, New York, adopted her two daughters — Heather and Jennifer — who were among the last children evacuated. Heather developed pneumonia on her trip to the US and died in May 1975. “I promised her I would make sure Babylift would never be forgotten,” Noone said.

Dressed in a traditional black Vietnamese silk dress, Leah Heslin, 42, said she looked forward to meet- ing other adult adoptees who were raised in the US but want to know about their Vietnamese heritage.

“It’s been very exciting, very anxious. I’m kind of nervous,” said Heslin, who attended the event with her adoptive mother, Carole Heslin, 72. “It brings it back to home a little bit.”

Participants dedicated a plaque inscribed with the names of 138 children, volunteers and soldiers who died when their C-5A Galaxy crashed en route to Clark Air Base in the Philippines.

Kim Lan Duong said she was orphaned in the streets of Saigon — present-day Ho Chi Minh City — before being flown to Detroit during Operation Babylift. She was adopted and raised by a single mother and grandmother, Sandy and Violet Howard.

“To be able to see adult adoptees ... warms their hearts,” said Duong, 43, who now lives in Dallas. “They still call us kids, and that’s OK.”