#operation babylift

[despazito]

americans physically incapable of not stealing children from 'enemy states'

[not-your-asian-fantasy]

Liz and Rohan arrived in Australia in boxes. They're looking for their families

Elizabeth Wray and Rohan Samara are two of the thousands of children evacuated from Vietnam at the fall of Saigon 50 years ago as part of Op

Elizabeth Wray was 18 months old when she arrived in Australia in a cardboard box.

She was one of thousands of children evacuated from Vietnam at the fall of Saigon 50 years ago as part of Operation Babylift.

"We were, I'm told, almost in shoe boxes, strapped down … to hold us all in and to make sure there was as many babies jammed into that plane as possible," she said.

[cydril]

Low-key disappointed that they included operation babylift among the heroic acts that the old guard performed. You know seeing as most of those babies were stolen from their families and also one of the planes crashed and killed everyone on board.

[fordlibrarymuseum]

Archives at Home: Operation Babylift

Faced with mounting evidence of the imminent fall of South Vietnam, President Gerald R. Ford authorized the evacuation of thousands of Vietnamese orphans to the United States in early April of 1975. This evacuation became known as Operation Babylift. Between April 3 and 15 more than 2,000 orphans were flown into the U.S. by military and private aircraft.

Learn more about Operation Babylift with these online resources:

Watch Ford Presidential Library and Museum staff discuss related materials from our collections in this video on YouTube.

Explore a timeline of Operation Babylift with documents, photographs, and artifacts from our collections and other sources in this online exhibit.

Take a closer look at archival records from the White House related to Operation Babylift on this selected documents page.

Check out our previous posts commemorating Operation Babylift.

Images:  Vietnamese Refugee Children on an Operation Babylift Flight Arriving at San Francisco International Airport, 4/5/1975 (National Archives Identifier  12082682)

Fragments taken from the crash site of a C-5A Operation Babylift flight on 4/4/1975

An assortment of clothing worn by the children rescued during Operation Babylift

A pair of well-worn baby shoes worn by orphans evacuated from Vietnam during Operation Babylift

President Gerald R. Ford Carrying a Vietnamese Baby from Clipper 1742, One of the Operation Babylift Planes that Transported Approximately 325 South Vietnamese Orphans from Saigon to the United States, at San Francisco International Airport, 4/5/1975 (National Archives Identifier 7839930)

[strangebuttrueteam-blog]

[the-august-one]

Where my Wikipedia rabbit hole began:

juniper trees

Juniper - Wikipedia

Where my Wikipedia rabbit hole ended:

Operation Babylift

Operation Babylift - Wikipedia

The path:

Juniper

Saining

Hogmanay

Foot first

Black bun

Garibaldi biscuit

Fruit Slice/Gur cake/gurrier cake

Gurrier etymology

Street urchin/Street children

Thrown away children/Child abandonment

Operation Babylift

[porterdavis]

Operation Babylift

In the dying days of the Vietnam War, President Ford made the decision to evacuate orphaned infants and children from the country. Tragically, the first flight carrying about 330 infants crash-landed in a rice paddy, killing 70 infants and 50 support members. 

Nonetheless the evacuation continued and over 10,000 children were settled in the US, Canada, Australia and France. They are in their 40s now and hold reunions annually. DNA tests are offered to them to help learn and reunite with their families in Vietnam. 

The operation remains a small happy sidebar to the ugly national tragedy that was the war in Vietnam.