Press and partners
Press
An Emmy-winning documentary, national coverage, and an archive returning original records to the people they name.
For interviews, images, and fact-checking, write to devaki@operationbabylift.org.
2026 News & Documentary Emmy Award · Winner
Operation Babylift: The 50-Year Journey
The 20/20 and ABC News Live documentary won the 2026 News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Light Feature: Long Form. It follows the lives the Babylift children built, and the archive at the center of the search.
Full credits
ABC News Senior Executive Producer: Seniboye Tienabeso. Executive Producer: Janice Johnston. Producers: Kieran McGirl, Brian Mezerski, Gary Wynn. Cinematographers: Akram Abi-Hanna, Daniel Fiore, Eli Gamson, Russ Marhull. Field Producers: Kaitlin Amoroso, Keturah Gray, Henry Lievsay. Field Audio: Gil Ben-Ze’ev, Steve Kashuk, Alex Sierra. Editors: Jonathan Cordell, Adam Siegel, Erik Zimmermann. Senior Graphics Producers: Christa Garubo, Ed Rydzewski. Graphics Producer: Marci Ichimura. Associate Producer: Natalie Cardenas.
Coverage
Broadcast
- ABC 20/20 & ABC News LiveMay 2025 · 2026 Emmy winner
Operation Babylift: The 50-Year Journey – A Special Edition of 20/20 - FOX31 / KDVR DenverApril 29, 2025 · syndicated nationally
Plane crash survivor looks back on harrowing evacuation from Vietnam during Operation Babylift 50 years ago - KDVR DenverMay 6, 2025
Operation Babylift 50 years later: Crash survivor keeps history alive - Nexstar / WRIC2025
Watch the full special: ‘Operation Babylift: Flight to a New Future’
Print and online
- The Washington PostApril 27, 2025
The children of the Vietnam War’s ‘Operation Babylift’ have turned 50. A look at the lives they built. - Smithsonian Magazine2025
This Adoptee Discovered a Trove of Documents in a Nun’s Basement. The Rare Vietnam War Records May Rewrite the Story of Operation Babylift - The Colorado SunMay 3, 2026
50 years after Operation Babylift evacuated thousands from Vietnam, a Colorado gathering celebrates a shared past
University
- Regis University MagazineSpring/Summer 2025
Operation Babylift: Uncovering memory in media - Regis University NewsJanuary 21, 2025
Stories from Wartime Celebrates its 30th Anniversary - Regis University (OneRegis)February 2025
Exhibit & Reception in the Fireside Gallery - Operation Babylift: New Perspectives
Vietnamese-language
- VnExpress2026
Nửa đời tìm mẹ của những đứa trẻ Babylift - VnExpress2026
Những “đứa trẻ U60” tìm nơi thuộc về
Boilerplate
The Operation Babylift Collection is a project of Archives in Love and War. It returns original records from the 1975 Vietnamese child evacuation to the people they document. The records were kept for fifty years by Sister Mary Nelle Gage, the last surviving leader of Friends For All Children, and entrusted in 2024 to Devaki Murch, an Operation Babylift adoptee and archivist. Every record is handled through Love Ethic Archival Practice (LEAP), a trauma-informed methodology that puts the dignity and agency of survivors first. Fiscally sponsored by Torrey House Press (EIN 47-5055025).
Fact sheet
| Project | Operation Babylift Collection, a project of Archives in Love and War |
|---|---|
| Based in | Boulder, Utah |
| Origin | Original Friends For All Children records, entrusted in 2024 by Sister Mary Nelle Gage |
| Archivist and curator | Devaki Murch, an Operation Babylift adoptee |
| Methodology | Love Ethic Archival Practice (LEAP) |
| Community | Invisible Threads Gathering, Boulder, Colorado, April 9 to 12, 2026: 149 people engaged, 13 oral histories recorded |
| Recognition | 2026 News & Documentary Emmy Award, Outstanding Light Feature: Long Form, for Operation Babylift: The 50-Year Journey |
| Next exhibit | Archives in Love and War: The Operation Babylift Story, Holladay Library, Utah, February 1 to March 25, 2027 |
| Fiscal sponsor | Torrey House Press (EIN 47-5055025) |
Language we use
- Operation Babylift was an evacuation in April 1975. Please avoid the language of rescue.
- Operation Babylift children are here today, and many are searching.
- The archive is not an adoption agency. It returns records and supports searches.
- Please do not publish an adoptee’s identifying information without their consent.
Images and interviews
Photographs from the collection and from gatherings are available for editorial use on request, with captions and permissions. Interviews are available with the archivist, and, with consent, with adoptees and caregivers.
Partners
Fiscally sponsored by Torrey House Press (EIN 47-5055025). Exhibits and programs developed with Regis University’s Center for the Study of War Experience and with library and museum hosts across the country.
From the collection
The work in public
