Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
April 4, 2000

ORPHANS RESCUED IN 'OPERATION BABYLIFT' RETURN
Associated Press

In the waning days of the Vietnam War, enormous cargo planes lumbered into the sky over Saigon carrying tiny, precious loads.

Along the walls inside the planes, seat belts held hundreds of frightened toddlers and older children. Down the center, secured with long straps, were rows of cardboard boxes, each holding two or three babies.

More than 2,000 Vietnamese orphans were evacuated from Saigon, now renamed Ho Chi Minh City, during those final days in April 1975 in a U.S. campaign dubbed ''Operation Babylift.''  It included a deadly crash that stunned even those already numbed by the war's horrors.

On Monday, some of those airlifted to new homes and adoptive families a quarter-century ago came back to Vietnam for the first time on a memorial tour led by one of the evacuation's organizers.

A group of 38 arrived at Ho Chi Minh City airport, including 15 orphans as well as their adoptive families. After the long flight, they looked happy but exhausted.

''It's like a dream being back in many respects'' said Sister Mary Nelle Gage, a former administrator with a volunteer agency that processed adoption papers for many of the children. '

'When we were living here and working here, every day seemed so desperate. We always wondered what the children would be like when they grew up, what they would think of their time here.''

Gage, who now lives in Colorado, hopes the two-week trip will help the orphans, now in their mid-20s and early 30s, come to terms with their past. Many ended up being adopted by American families.

The orphans often didn't have official birth records because some were children of American GIs and Vietnamese women, considered a shameful union by Vietnamese society, she said. Many grew up wondering about their past and the reasons for their abandonment.

''They know this is their flesh-and-blood beginning. They want to see where they are from and experience being in that environment,'' she said.

Three of the visitors are survivors of the ill-fated cargo jet crash on April 4, 1975, that killed 144 adults and children, including 76 babies.

On that morning, a giant C-5A cargo jet --- making one of the first evacuation flights --- cruised down the runway of Saigon's Tan Son Nhut Airport loaded with more than 300 children and their caretakers.

A few minutes after takeoff, an explosion blew out the doors. The pilots were able to turn the plane back toward the airport and crash-landed a few miles from the runway.

One of the most tragic images to emerge from the chaos of the war was the sight of tiny white body bags being unloaded from rescue helicopters as frantic personnel sought to help the 170-plus survivors.

The returnees are planning a special memorial service today at the crash site. Some of the Vietnamese childcare workers who cared for the orphans are expected to attend.  Gage has led two other groups of orphans and their adoptive parents back to Vietnam in 1996 and 1997. But this year --- the 25th anniversary of the end of the war --- has a particular resonance, she said.

The trip will focus on providing the returnees and their parents with a sense of connection with the past, with visits planned to local orphanages and birthplaces of the orphans.

For the first-time returnees, cultural lessons on Vietnam are part of the itinerary, with tours of Ho Chi Minh City and a trip to the Mekong Delta and its floating markets.

The tour will wind its way up to Danang and Hue before concluding in Hanoi at the end of next week with a meeting with U.S. Ambassador Pete Peterson.

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