In 1975, as North Vietnamese forces were closing in on Saigon, thousands of Vietnamese orphans were airlifted out of South Vietnam. More than 200 infants and toddlers came to the U.S. — all part of an effort known as “Operation Babylift.”
Saturday, many of these orphans reunited for the first time as adults at Fort Benning, Ga. They did so to thank and honor Betty Tisdale, the woman responsible for bringing them to the U.S.
“These children grew up in wonderful, happy American homes,” Tisdale said. “That’s what we do as Americans, we reach out. You saw what happened in Haiti, we reach out to help other people.”
Tisdale says she didn’t do it alone. She credits the soldiers.
“We had the best Christmases and Thanksgivings all because of our servicemen,” Tisdale said. “[The soldiers] were popular with the children, they could not have survived without the them.”
One of the An Lac orphans, Jason Robertson, organized the reunion. He hopes people will remember ‘Operation Babylift’ and look past any negative connotations.
“I want people to realize that something positive happened out of Vietnam- see these good positive stories about the soldiers and about the war,” Robertson said.
The evacuation effort was controversial at times. Not all the children brought to the U.S. were orphans. Vietnamese parents smuggled infants on the flights and documentation was often sketchy or inaccurate. But despite the disorder of the documentation surrounding many adoptions, most were completed without interruption.
Today, the orphans say they enjoy reunions like the one at Fort Benning. Many say the connection they have between each other is undeniable.
“It’s like an instant kinship,” Robertson said. “I mean we all were together at one time, and the war made us instant brothers and sisters.”