SoCal woman recalls Vietnam War mission to rescue orphans

In the final days of the Vietnam War, thousands of infants and children from South Vietnam were airlifted out of the country and put up for adoption. It was known as "Operation Babylift."

Friday marks the 40th anniversary of the event, and volunteers who took part in the dangerous mission spoke out in remembrance of that day.

Dr. Valerie Witherspoon thinks back on her role in the operation. She was a flight attendant with World Airways at the time, and she was on assignment with her boss and the airline owner, Ed Daly.

"It certainly doesn't seem like 40 years have passed," Witherspoon said. "I thought we were going on a routine business trip. I didn't know where we were going. We ended up in Saigon and then things started falling apart."

They arrived just weeks before the fall of Saigon. As the rest of the country was falling into chaos, thousands were looking for ways to get out. Against the wishes of the U.S. Embassy, Daly had arranged to take out dozens of orphans on a flight.

But the plane had been used to transport rice, not people. Witherspoon said the plane was configured to carry cargo, and that there were no seats or oxygen masks.

When those working for the orphanage took a look at the plane, the children were pulled out. That is when another orphanage, made up mostly of children fathered by American G.I.s, stepped in.

"And there we were sitting on the runway. It was dark, and we suddenly hear the sounds of kids singing 'California, Here I Come,'" Witherspoon said. "They got on the plane. The plan was to take off around 5 or just before sunset. At night it wasn't safe because the Vietcong take over the airfield. So we took off without permission and with no lights on the runway and there we went."

Jeff Gahr was one of those children on the plane. He spoke with KGO-TV, our sister station in San Francisco, a few years ago and recalled what happened.

"It seems like we were all slipping back toward the bottom of the airplane because we were hanging on for dear life," he said.

Under the threat of mortar fire, the plane made it and landed safely in California.

"It was an extremely meaningful thing to have participated in," Witherspoon said.

One of her favorite photographs is of the children staring out the window of a flight because many had not been on a plane before, she added.

The children were relocated all over the U.S., including some in Southern California, and Canada.