Operation Babylift crews reunite with passengers

Air Force and Qantas personnel who flew hundreds of Vietnamese orphans out of harm’s way were reunited with the Operation Babylift “babies” for a 50th anniversary ceremony at the Australian War Memorial on July 23.

CAPTION: Suanne Prager, airlifted to Australia under Operation Babylift as a child, meets 37 Squadron Association president Col Coyne at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. Story and photos by Corporal Jacob Joseph.

Royal Australian Air Force Detachment S was formed in 1975 to transport supplies to South Vietnam and assist with civilian evacuations amid an unfolding humanitarian crisis.

It comprised eight C-130 Hercules aircraft from 36 and 37 Squadrons and two C-47 Dakotas from Transport Support Flight, Butterworth.

Air Commodore (retd) Ian Scott was a Hercules navigator.

Then-Flight Lieutenant Scott said at first, they evacuated civilians to an island hundreds of kilometres from harm, as artillery and bombs hit Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).

CAPTION: Air Commodore (retd) Ian Scott speaks during a service to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Operation Babylift at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.

It became impossible for the crew to control thousands of desperate refugees, and operations switched to ferrying food, fuel, tents and emergency supplies to some 40,000 refugees who fled to Phu Quoc island.

For the RAAF personnel, who clocked up 465 hours of flying time in April 1975, the mission to airlift Vietnamese orphans stands out more than others.

“It was the most well-known of our operations,” Air Commodore Scott said.

Thousands of orphaned children were among the refugee crisis unfolding in Saigon in the days before the city fell.

Many of them were children of American servicemen.

The United States announced Operation Babylift to evacuate some 3000 orphans from Saigon, with Detachment S lending support to take the most critically ill to Australia, because it was a shorter distance to travel.

Two Babylift missions took place in April, the first on April 4 and then a smaller number of children on April 17.

Air Commodore Scott was on the second flight.

“Feeding and nursing those children on the tarmac gave us a perspective on the real victims, the real losers in war, the innocent,” Air Commodore Scott said.

“At the time we did not question the wisdom of shuttling those poor kids off to places unknown around the world, but it seemed to us at the time the best thing for their survival.

“But that didn’t address the issue of being torn from their family, their country and their culture that many of them faced as they grew up in foreign lands.”

CAPTION: Men and women transported by Operation Babylift meet 37 Squadron Association president Col Coyne, centre, at the RAAF Memorial Grove, Canberra.

Suanne Prager was one of those on Air Commodore Scott’s flight.

She spoke to hundreds gathered at the war memorial about her experience 50 years before.

She arrived in Melbourne on April, 18, 1975 and a few weeks later she was with her adoptive family in Adelaide.

She had a normal upbringing for an Adelaide kid, but as the years advanced so did her desire for answers about her biological parents.

She was reunited with her biological mother, Ha Thi Hoa, in 2007.

“My mum explained how she sought help for the stresses she was facing leading up to Saigon falling,” Ms Prager said.

“I was Amerasian. She feared for my health and safety. My sibling had the same illness I had when I was two. She died and I survived.

“She wanted to give me a chance that she couldn’t provide at that time.”

Ha Thi Hoa passed away in January this year, 50 years after Operation Babylift changed the trajectory of thousands of lives.

“The 50th anniversary is such a significant event,” Ms Prager said.

“I wanted to talk about the experience of finding my Vietnamese mum so her life had meaning for future generations.”

CAPTION: Air Commodore (retd) Ian Scott speaks during a service to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Operation Babylift at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.

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