OPERATION BABYLIFT
CELEBRATING THE 47TH ANNIVERSARY
The Pan Am Museum Foundation, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum are proud to present Operation BabyLift, a special reception on April 24, 2022 at 6:00 pm EDT to mark the 47th Anniversary of the evacuation of Vietnamese war orphans.
Attending the event will be adoptees from the Pan Am flights, adoptive parents, several volunteer flight attendants, volunteer medical professionals and Al Topping, Pan Am’s Director of South Vietnam & Cambodia, along with several members of his Saigon staff who organized the evacuation flights.
Also, in attendance and available for interview will be Al Topping, Pan Am’s Director of South Vietnam & Cambodia. He helped organized the evacuation flights as North Vietnamese troops were closing in, including another evacuation of almost 400 families soon after Operation BabyLift was completed.
Thursday, April 24th, 2022
6:00 PM
The Pan Am Museum Foundation
Cradle of Aviation Museum
Charles Lindbergh Boulevard
Garden City, NY 11530
BACKGROUND
In early April 1975, President Gerald Ford authorized $2 million funding of Operation BabyLift for evacuation flights of orphans on military charter and Pan Am planes. The first flight on a military charter on April 4, 1975 ended in tragedy when it crashed in a rice paddy.
Two Pan Am 747’s were then chartered, one by Holt International and the other by AmeriCares to evacuate survivors of the military charter as well as more than 300 babies and children. One of the Pan Am flights arrived in San Francisco carrying over 300 children and was met there by President and Mrs. Ford. The other flight arrived in Seattle carrying over 400 children. After arrival many of the babies were sent onto other US destinations to be welcomed into their adoptive families.
