Patricia Murphy/NPR
As Vietnamese Americans across the nation commemorate the fall of Saigon and how it has changed their lives, one former flight attendant on board a World Airways DC-8 cargo plane recalls a time when she was able to lend a helping hand to the children affected by war.
Janice Wollett, a former flight attendant working on 1975 flights of the ‘Babylift Operation’ shows off a picture of two Vietnam War orphans taken aboard a World Airways flight 40 years ago. (Photo: HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/Getty Images)
Days before Operation Babylift got the official go-ahead from then-president Gerald Ford, Jane Wollett was one of the flight attendants on the first flight out of Vietnam with 57 children. It was a mission she said “felt like the right thing to do.”
Wollett still remembers that day: April 2, 1975. The plane was told they could not carry any passengers that day and on short notice, were told they would be switching gears and carrying children out of Vietnam instead. With no seats, Wollett lined the cabin with blankets. She said she still remembers how scared the young ones were and how much wonder there was for many who had never been on a plane. She said there was an overwhelming sense of wanting to help these children find a better life and to protect them.
According to the Presidio Officers Club, which is hosting an exhibit entitled Operation Babylift: Perspectives and Legacies from now until the end of Decemeber, over 2,000 children were evacuated from Vietnam by the end of April, 1975.
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