My
“World” History - Page 12
Courage Revisited
World Airways Returns to Vietnam August 2005 - By Bob Shane
The Vietnam War ended on April 30, 1975, with the fall of Saigon.
During the
weeks leading up to this climactic event, humanitarian organizations
were anxiously
looking for ways to evacuate the thousands of orphaned Vietnamese
children that
the conflict had produced.
“Operation Babylift” adoptees pose with former World Airways
chairman
of the board Hollis Harris (left), World Airways CEO Randy Martinez
(second
from left), and General Ronald Fogleman (USAF ret.), World Airways
chairman
of the board (right end). On April 2, 1975, Ed Daly, World Airway's
maverick
president and owner, in what most regard as a heroic act, departed
Tan Son
Nhut Air Base in Saigon aboard a DC-8 cargo aircraft carrying 57
orphans headed
for Oakland, Calif. This flight was the first of a series of
flights, which
became known as "Operation Babylift."
In April of this year, World Airways announced that it would
commemorate the
historic airlift that the company made 30 years ago with a special
flight that
would return 21 of the former orphans for a visit to the country of
their birth.
It was 1 p.m. on June 12, when a shiny World Airways MD-11, freshly
re-painted
in the same red and white company colors worn by the fleet in 1975,
landed at
Oakland and taxied to the KaiserAir ramp. World personnel immediately
began
the process of getting the aircraft ready for the start of "Operation
Babylift—Homeward
Bound 2005."
That evening, there was a reception held at Fisherman's Wharf in San
Francisco.
The invitees included everyone that would be departing on the special
flight
the next morning, World employees and retirees, and the media.
The next morning, just prior to departure, there was a press
conference at KaiserAir
across from Hangar 5, which was World Airways' original hangar when
the company
set up operations in Oakland in the 1950s. Steve Grossman, director of
aviation
for the Port of Oakland, began his speech by welcoming World Airways
home. Randy
Martinez, the CEO of World Air Holdings stated, "We're here to honor
our
heritage and recognize the contribution of our employees."
The passenger manifest for World Airways Flight #001 contained 112
names, several
right out of 30-year-old newspaper headlines. Included were pilots,
flight attendants
and other World personnel that had risked their lives to save orphan
children
and refugees. There were decorated Vietnam veterans and distinguished
members
of World's board of directors, management team and their guests.
Captain Bob Franklin was the pilot in command on the MD-11 flight to
Vietnam.
Then, of course, there were the special 21 orphans that were the focus
of Operation
Babylift. A modest press contingent accompanied the group to cover
what for
many would be an emotional experience. For a journalist such as
myself, this
was a great opportunity to meet the faces behind the headlines. It was
exceptional
to be able to travel back to actual locations where history was made
and be
able to relive history through the eyes and minds of those that made
history!
For those on board, the trip would answer many personal questions; for
some
it would fulfill a solemn promise made a long time ago. Many new
friendships
would be forged. Everyone, without exception, felt this would be the
trip of
a lifetime.
Following the press conference, the passengers boarded the World
Airways MD-11.
Sitting on the ramp at Oakland, the jet airliner was stunning in its
newly applied
retro paint scheme. In fact, it looked so good that when CEO Martinez
first
saw the airplane, when it was being painted by Delta, he commented,
"We're
in trouble. When the employees see it, they'll want us to paint them
all."
Inside, the aircraft was configured for 291 passengers, made up of 24
first
class seats and 267 coach seats. The flight crew consisted of four
pilots and
12 flight attendants, who provided an exceptional business class food
service.
Right on schedule, at 10:45 a.m., we were racing down the runway at
Oakland.
Captain Franklin dipped the left wing as we passed near San Francisco,
heading
out toward the Pacific. Once off the California coast, the aircraft
was established
on a heading that would take us close to Adak, Alaska, where we would
then pick
up Airway NP220, the most northern standard route to Asia. Next stop
Taipei.
After a story-filled 13-hour flight to Taipei, Taiwan, we landed at
Chiang Kai
Shek International Airport where the aircraft was ground handled by
Eva Air,
one of World's customers. The stop would be overnight, making it an
opportunity
to rest up for the next day's visit to Ho Chi Minh City, or if you
prefer, Saigon.
World Airways flight attendants Carol Shabata (standing) and Valerie
Witherspoon
(kneeling) play with the Vietnamese orphans on the historic
evacuation flight
on April 2, 1975.
Upon arrival in Ho Chi Minh City, there was a press conference held in
a VIP
room inside the Tan Son Nhat airport terminal. Vietnamese officials,
including
the deputy mayor of the city, were in attendance. After breezing
through immigration,
the group boarded modern tour buses and headed downtown to a brand new
Sheraton
Hotel. Less than two years old, it was perhaps the finest hotel in the
city,
with service standards comparable to any Sheraton in their worldwide
system.
The hotel is characteristic of the economic boom that Vietnam is now
enjoying
as a result of the U.S. lifting what remained of its trade embargo in
1994.
The next day's schedule included a tour of the city and an orphanage
run by
catholic nuns, a boat ride on the Saigon River, and the finale, a gala
dinner
at the Presidential Palace, which is now the Reunification Palace.
During the
evening event, Shirley Peck-Barnes, author of the book, "The War
Cradle,"
which documents Operation Babylift and its legacy, presented a quilt
she made
to our Vietnamese hosts. It was a special quilt in that it was made
from the
baby clothing worn by the orphans when they left Vietnam in 1975.
Additionally,
it was signed by the passengers traveling on the World Airways
commemorative
flight. Today, the palace is a museum and is used for receptions and
special
events. For me, it still remains a symbol of the end of the war. I'm
sure we
all remember the picture of a North Vietnamese tank smashing through
the fence
and entering the grounds of the palace.
The next morning, motor coaches transported the group back to Tan Son
Nhat Airport
for the 14-hour, non-stop flight to San Francisco. It was another
opportunity
to hear more war stories and learn of the adoptees' impressions of the
country
of their birth.
The first Babylift flight
Pilots Bill Keating and Ken Healy flew the original Operation Babylift
flight
from Saigon on April 2, 1975, and were honored guests on the
commemorative flight.
Their accounts of that historic flight and other flights they made
during the
final weeks of the war read like a Hollywood script. Keating is now 90
years
old and Healy is only six months his junior. While they both had major
roles
in shaping historic events, the central protagonist was Ed Daly.
Ship 805 was the World Airways DC-8 used on the original Operation
Babylift
flight.
Daly was the colorful non-conventional president and owner of World
Airways.
It was rumored that when he acquired the airline in 1950, he paid for
it with
$50,000 in poker winnings. Often characterized as a combative, hard
drinking,
pistol-packing Irishman, he also had a generous side. Operating in a
war zone,
the tough-talking Daly wore a safari suit with a green beret or a
bush-styled
hat and always carried a 38 caliber pistol. He enjoyed flying around
the world
in his two private aircraft, a B-23 once owned by Howard Hughes and a
Convair
440 painted in 14 different shades of green, with a shamrock on the
tail and
a leprechaun painted next to the entry door. Daly called his Convair
the "Jolly
Green Giant."
Of the tens of thousands of Asian refugees that immigrated to the
United States
following the end of the Vietnam War, the most dramatic evacuations
involved
orphaned babies and abandoned children. During the final weeks of the
war, humanitarian
organizations were asking the U.S. government to formulate a program
for the
evacuation of Vietnamese orphans. Despite these pleas for help,
nothing seemed
to be happening. The process was completely entangled in a sea of
bureaucratic
red tape. Something significant needed to happen to break the
stalemate.
On April 2, 1975, the 52-year-old Daly made the extreme decision to
use one
of his DC-8s to airlift orphaned children out of Saigon. World had
been using
their DC-8s on the rice lift, flying rice from Saigon to Phnom Penh in
Cambodia.
The pilots wore helmets and flack jackets because the field at Phnom
Penh was
always under fire.
Normally, the ground time was 11 minutes to unload 100,000 pounds of
rice; the
crew always kept the number three engine running. During one trip
Keating made
into Phnom Penh on March 5, 1975, the aircraft was hit by a 105-mm
round while
it was unloading rice. Thinking the aircraft was disabled, the USAF
ground officer
informed Keating that the aircraft would have to be moved out of the
way and
be destroyed.
"I have a little bit of a problem with that," Keating stated. "Mr.
Daly wouldn't like that!"
Keating inspected the aircraft. While the hydraulic system was
damaged, the
fuel system was OK, so Keating decided the aircraft was flyable and
flew the
DC-8 back to Saigon with the landing gear down. The aircraft was later
repaired.
Operation Babylift pilots Ken Healy (left) and Bill Keating (right)
on the
flight deck of the MD-11 that made the commemorative trip back to
Vietnam.
Keating would be the captain on the first leg of Operation Babylift
from Saigon
to Yokota Air Base in Japan. Captain Ken Healy would fly the Tokyo to
Oakland
leg. As the day progressed, it didn't appear any progress was being
made. Neither
the South Vietnamese nor U.S. governments sanctioned Daly's flight.
For one
thing, the DC-8 was configured for cargo and it had no seats. They
were telling
the various organizations wanting to evacuate children that the plane
was unsafe.
Ross Meador, the 20-year-old co-director of overseas operations for
the Friends
of Children of Vietnam, came out to the airport to meet with Daly.
Meador hoped
to get some of the orphans in his care on the flight to Oakland. Daly
offered
to take the children, but the main concern was whether the South
Vietnamese
government would let them leave.
It was early evening and there were rumors that the Viet Cong might
attack the
airport. Daly had Meador contacted, advising him that he was going and
Meador
needed to get the children out to the airplane. The orphans arrived at
the DC-8
singing a new song that Meador had taught them in route to the
airport, "California
here I come."
The floor of the DC-8 cabin, covered with blankets, pillows and
cardboard, would
soon be a giant playpen in the sky. South Vietnamese soldiers came
aboard the
DC-8 and took off two of the orphans who appeared to be at least 14
years old
and consequently eligible for service in the Army. Daly tried to buy
the children
with a hundred dollar bill, but the soldier wouldn't take it. Jeff
Gahr was
one of the orphans on the flight; it was his brother Jason that the
soldiers
removed.
"I didn't know if I would ever see my brother again," he stated.
Daly tore the bill and gave Jason half as a souvenir. He did make it
to the
U.S. on one of the subsequent evacuation flights. All these years, he
kept the
souvenir. He had it laminated, and brought it with him on the
commemorative
flight.
Colonel Dennis “Bud” Traynor (USAF ret.) was the aircraft commander
on the C-5A babylift flight that crashed on April 4, 1975.
The first Operation Babylift flight took off from Saigon in darkness;
the airport
had turned the runway lights off. The DC-8 departed without a formal
clearance
to take off or a flight plan filed. Daly paid for the flight out of
his own
pocket.
Jan Wollett, one of the flight attendants on the original flight,
seems to remember
it as if it were yesterday.
"As we approached San Francisco, it was a perfectly clear night,"
she said. "It seemed like every light was turned on."
As some of the orphans looking through the aircraft windows shouted,
"America,
America," Wollett began to cry.
After landing in Oakland, the Red Cross came on board to take the
children.
"Thank God we did it," Wollett then said. "Thank God Mr. Daly
had us do it!"
The next day, April 3, President Gerald Ford declared Operation
Babylift a national
initiative. Using mostly military aircraft, 30 flights were planned to
evacuate
orphaned babies and children. On April 4, the first authorized flight
was attempted
from Saigon using a C-5A Galaxy.
Twelve minutes into the flight, disaster struck. The aircraft was
climbing through
23,000 feet when it experienced explosive rapid decompression. The
rear ramp
and pressure door blew out, severing all of the elevator control
cables to the
tail and disabling two of the aircraft's four hydraulic systems. While
trying
to return to Saigon, the aircraft crashed in a rice paddy. Of those on
board,
138 perished and 176 survived. Subsequent military flights were flown
using
the C-141 Starlifter.
The last flight From Da Nang
During the final weeks of the Vietnam War, thousands of refugees tried
to escape
from Vietnam and the advancing communist troops coming from the north.
In Saigon,
Daly heard that there were refugees roaming around the airport in Da
Nang. He
told World Airways pilot Ken Healy that he was thinking of sending a
couple
of Boeing 727 passenger planes up to Da Nang, to evacuate refugees.
Michelle Meador (left) and Ross Meador (right) visiting the Phu My
Orphanage
in Ho Chi Minh City. Meador was the co-manager of the orphanage that
put 57
orphans on the first babylift flight from Saigon to Oakland.
So, on March 29, 1975, Healy and Daly departed Saigon for Da Nang.
Healy talked
to the tower before landing and was advised that the airport was
peaceful. However,
once on the ground and taxiing to the ramp, the aircraft was mobbed,
mostly
by deserting South Vietnamese soldiers who were dressed in civilian
clothing.
The officers had fled, leaving the young enlisted men to fend for
themselves.
Healy kept all three engines running as Daly blocked the rear entry
stairs,
trying to stop the soldiers and pick up women and children. Men
driving trucks,
cars, jeeps and motorbikes chased the 727, desperate to get on the
aircraft.
Overhead, an Air America helicopter pilot advised Healy over the radio
that
the runway was blocked with vehicles and he needed to take off on the
taxiway,
which was 7,000 feet long. A newsman that had gotten off the 727 had
to be left
behind because the crowd pushed hum out of reach of the plane. Healy
asked the
Air America pilot if he could pick him up later.
A grenade went off, damaging the left wing, and the plane had to dodge
bullets
as angry men left behind fired at the plane. As the airliner started
its takeoff
roll on the taxiway, soldiers climbed into the luggage compartments,
leaving
the doors open. The rear stairs were damaged and couldn't be raised
all the
way. Fuel lines had been hit and the aircraft was leaking fuel. As
Healy continued
his takeoff roll, he realized that he would have to go around a
vehicle that
was parked on the taxiway in front of him. A quick detour through the
grass
and he was back up on the taxiway with everything fire-walled for the
balance
of the takeoff. He pulled back on the control column, but the nose
wouldn't
come up.
"I waited until there was no pavement under me then gave the controls
one
last pull," he said.
The stick shaker went off as the plane finally rotated and started a
slow climb.
Several men clinging to the open stairs fell to their death. At least
one person
was crushed in the wheel well doors. The flight to Saigon was flown at
low altitude.
Captain Healy, not knowing the conditions of the landing gear,
carefully put
the 727 down on the runway.
Jennifer Noone (left) was on the last Operation Babylift flight from
Saigon.
Noone and her adoptive mother Lana stand near the memorial site
where a ceremony
was held in Ho Chi Minh City for her first adopted Vietnamese
daughter, Heather,
who died after a brief illness.
The plane, which normally carries 125 passengers, had a total of 268
in the
main cabin. Additionally, the cargo compartments were full of
stowaways. It's
estimated that the last flight from Da Nang carried over 330
people—undoubtedly,
the world record for the number of passengers ever carried on a Boeing
727.
Subsequent to the commemorative flight World made in June 2005, I met
Wayne
Lannin, a helicopter pilot for HTS Helicopters. During our discussion,
I discovered
he flew helicopters for Air America in Vietnam from 1970 to 1975.
Amazingly,
he was the pilot Healy talked to on the radio during his ordeal, while
on the
ground at Da Nang.
On that day, he was operating a Bell 204.
"We had been working on getting embassy people out of Da Nang," he
said.
Orbiting over the airport, Lannin had a unique vantage point. He
watched the
World 727 land and head for the ramp.
"What happened next was like a bad movie," Lannin said.
He saw the aircraft being mobbed and people being blown away by the
jet blast
as they tried to stop the plane.
"I told the pilot, 'Don't go to the runway; they've got you blocked.
Go
to the taxiway," he recalled.
He watched as Healy started his takeoff down the taxiway, went around
the vehicle,
and then went off the end of the taxiway into the red laterite dirt,
sending
up a huge cloud of dust.
"I thought he was history, when all of a sudden I saw him rising up
out
of this cloud of dirt," he said. "My last radio transmission to the
727 was 'Nice job, World!' It went unanswered."
A group of Vietnam vets pose for a picture next to the World Airways
commemorative
MD-11 at Tan Son Nhat Airport. From top down, Collin Bakse, Bob
Franklin,
R.T. Tanner, Kelly Irving, Roger McElroy, Jim Dyer, Ronald Fogleman
and Ken
Peterson.
When Healy and Lannin got together recently to discuss events of that
historic
day, Healy thanked Lannin for the assistance he rendered and for going
back
and rescuing the newsman left behind. It wasn't until now that Healy
knew that
the newsman had been rescued.
An opportunity to say thank you
Seven members of the original crew were on board the World Airways
Operation
Babylift commemorative flight. Of the 21 orphans that made the journey
back
to Vietnam, five were on the first babylift flight. Many of the
orphans took
the opportunity to say thank you to the people that evacuated them
from Vietnam.
Jeff Gahr, who spoke on behalf of the orphans at the press conferences
and other
formal gatherings, personally thanked the Americans for the love and
care shown
him 30 years ago.
"You opened up a world of opportunities for me that I never dreamed
were
possible," said Gahr, who was adopted by an Oregon family and now
works
for Boeing as an electrical engineer in Seattle.
Flight attendant Atsuko, who crewed the original flight, always
wondered if
Jeff ever got together again with his brother Jason, after the
soldiers had
taken Jason off the flight. She was happy to find out that they were
reunited.
Jennie Noone, who was evacuated on the last flight, sent a letter to
President
Ford in which she said, "Thank you for giving me a chance at life and
for
uniting me with a beautiful family."
Jared Rehberg composed and recorded a CD that included "Waking up
American,"
which he dedicated to the birth parents he never met. Rehberg
performed his
song at the Reunification Palace.
Lana Noone's first adopted Vietnamese child, Heather, died shortly
after arriving
in the United States. When she arrived at JFK Airport on April 23,
1975, she
was very ill. She had been hospitalized a number of times and never
weighed
more than six pounds.
Noone made a promise to Heather that she would never be forgotten and
that she
would have a memorial service for her in the country of her birth. The
commemorative
flight enabled her to keep that promise.
Unanswered questions resolved
For a long time, Ross Meador, who put the 57 orphans in his care on
the World
Airways babylift flight 30 years ago, wondered if he had made a
mistake.
"Maybe they would have been better off staying in their own country,"
he said.
The commemorative flight has reinforced the feeling that his action
probably
saved their lives.
Vietnam vets return
Ex-Air America pilot Wayne Lannin, who helped World Airways pilot
Ken Healy
during his harrowing “last flight from Da Nang.”
Also returning to Vietnam—almost all of them for the first time—were
a distinguished group of Vietnam Vets. On board the special flight was
General
Ronald Fogleman (USAF ret.), who flew 315 combat missions and is
currently the
chairman of World Airways. He put in two tours, the first in 1968
flying F-100s
with the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing, the "Buzzards of Bin Hoa," and
a subsequent tour flying F-4s. He was rescued after being shot down on
Sept.
12, 1968, in an F-100.
Colonel Dennis "Bud" Traynor (USAF ret.) was the young Air Force
captain
and aircraft commander of the ill-fated C-5A that crashed on April 4,
1975,
during the first military flight of Operation Babylift.
Lt. Col. James Dyer (USMC ret.) put in three voluntary tours of duty,
one with
the Navy, and two as an artillery officer with the Marines. Dyer also
served
in the Colorado State Legislature as both a senator and a
representative. After
departing Saigon, Dyer experienced a stream of tears, which he says
was "a
culmination of emotion from the whole trip."
Capt. Bob Franklin, the command pilot of the MD-11 commemorative
flight, was
a Marine fighter pilot in Vietnam during the period of August 1969 to
August
1970. He flew 275 combat missions in F-4s, while based at Chu Lai. For
Franklin,
visiting Vietnam was an opportunity to visit a country in transition.
"As we turned south on airway W15 from directly overhead Da Nang, I
had
a flood of memories flash from 35 years earlier," he said. "The
'popcorn'
cumulous clouds reminded me of the FAC's (forward air controller's)
white phosphorous
smoke marking targets. This was my combat area. To the west I could
make out
several landmarks in Laos, where we lost aircraft."
He said his squadron alone lost nine airplanes during his year in
combat.
"Below and to my left I saw the enormous Hoi An river valley where
hundreds
of missions were flown," he said. "To my far left I could make out
Chi Lai and the twin runways of the fighter base. My best thought was
seeing
a country at peace—wishing that if only the 40,000 people named on
that
granite wall in Washington, D.C. could see this nation, finally, after
30 years
starting to embrace a number of the ideals for which they gave their
lives."
It would appear that time does heal all wounds, and in the aftermath
of the
Vietnam War, the healing process has taken hold. The current
Vietnamese prime
minister has vowed to continue working on finding the remains of U.S.
servicemen,
and adoption between our two countries has been reopened. Even Nguyen
Cao Ky,
the flamboyant and colorful commander of the South Vietnamese Air
Force, a prime
minister and vice president, who spent his life in exile in California
after
the war, has returned to Vietnam, where he wants to live the remainder
of his
days.
A history of humanitarianism
Going all the way back to the airline's inception, World Airways has a
history
of performing humanitarian missions. In 1956, its DC-4 aircraft
airlifted Hungarian
refugees to the U.S. More recently, it has flown relief flights in
Bosnia and
Somalia. Its philanthropic propensity has earned it a reputation as
the "small
airline with a big heart."
Wherever there are trouble spots throughout the world, you will find
World Airways
on the front lines. It's the largest carrier of U.S. troops. With a
fleet of
only 17 airplanes, it has managed to capture the lion's share of the
Defense
Department's business.
Following the U.S. invasion of Iraq, World was the first to operate a
commercial
flight into Baghdad. When the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan is secure
enough,
the airline will launch air service connecting Kabul with Washington,
D.C. Humanitarian
organizations like the Red Cross and the U.N. turn to airlines like
World to
transport personnel and supplies to the real hot spots where most
other airlines
won't go.
Ed Daly may have passed away in 1984, but his "can do" spirit lives
on at World Airways. The idea to do an Operation Babylift
commemorative flight
on its 30th anniversary mostly came from CEO Randy Martinez. It
reportedly took
two years of planning to make the flight happen; by the way, both the
U.S. and
the Vietnamese governments authorized it.
The management at World Airways is to be commended for having the
resources
and inclination to pay homage to their airline's heritage,
particularly being
in an industry where survival is the full-time focus. It was a great
flight
and I'm sure that all 112 passengers will forever regard it as the
trip of a
lifetime.
Thank you World Airways!
To My World