Operation Babylift Collection

Resources

Articles, archives, library & film

Please submit suggestions for resources to devaki@operationbabylift.org

General Articles & Reports

Digital Archives

"To our Babylift adoptees: As I look back on that day, most of you were approximately the same age as my children. So I can, in a way, look at all of you as part of a large extended family… I am always happy to give anyone who asks whatever insight I might have regarding this small part of your new beginning." Bud Traynor, Pilot

Library

Boris, Linda
Every Sparrow That Falls: The Story of the C-5A Galaxy Operation Babylift Crash

Self published, 2017. Gleaned from survivor and witness statements and direct interviews, this story comes to life through firsthand accounts of the April 4, 1975 crash.

Aune, Regina, and Aryn Lockhart

Pebbles Media, 2019. Two survivors of the inaugural Operation Babylift flight share their personal journeys and the bond formed from the events of April 4, 1975.

Connolly, Allison Varzally
Children of Reunion: Vietnamese Adoptions and the Politics of Family Migrations

University of North Carolina Press, 2014. Explores the history of Vietnamese adoption in the United States, focusing on the challenges and politics surrounding family reunification and international adoption.

Taylor, Rosemary
For Children Cannot Wait

Hodder & Stoughton, 1972. Written by a key organizer of Operation Babylift, detailing her experiences working with Vietnamese war orphans and her humanitarian efforts during the Vietnam War.

Barnes, Shirley Peck
The War Cradle: The Untold Story of Operation Babylift

2000. An overview of the ordinary people who were moved into action, despite an unpopular war, to seek out the children of Vietnam and find them new homes in the West.

Wise, Phillip R.
Fragile Delivery: The Operation Babylift Crash

CreateSpace, 2012. A memoir recounting the experience of a surviving crew member of the C-5A Galaxy crash during Operation Babylift on April 4, 1975.

Meador, Ross

A true story of resilience and survival during one of the most tumultuous evacuations in history. At 19, Ross Meador arrived in Vietnam searching for purpose, and was thrust into a race against time as Saigon fell.

Film & Special Features

Winner, 2026 News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Light Feature: Long Form. ABC's 20/20 special edition following the lives the Babylift children built and the archive at the center of the search.

An award-winning documentary directed and produced by Tammy Nguyen Lee, 2009. Through interviews with adoptees, volunteers, and parents, the film explores identity, cultural integration, and the lasting impact of the humanitarian effort. Visit Against The Grain Productions for more information.

Historian Lisa Temple tells the story of Operation Babylift, the mass evacuation of children from South Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War. Defense Intelligence Agency.

April 24, 2022. To celebrate the 47th anniversary, the Pan Am Museum and Holt International hosted a special event reuniting Vietnamese war orphans with three former Pan Am flight attendants who volunteered for the mission.

Operation Babylift: Flight to a New Future

The Nexstar Media full-length special on Operation Babylift and the journeys that followed. Watch the full special at WRIC.

Additional video feature on the Operation Babylift story.