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Home»New York Aviation History»Operation Babylift: A Celebration of the Human Spirit
New York Aviation History

Operation Babylift: A Celebration of the Human Spirit

Roberta DunnBy Roberta DunnMay 2, 2022No Comments2 Mins Read
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Pan Am Operation Baby Lift Cradle of Aviation Museum

The Pan Am Museum Foundation and Holt International celebrated the 47th anniversary of Operation Babylift on April 24, 1975, at the Cradle Of Aviation Museum.

Linda Freire, Chair of the Pan Am Foundation, welcomed the audience and spoke about the operation. In her words. “So what is Operation Babylift? It is the name of an evacuation mission set in motion by President Gerald Ford in April 1975 to evacuate thousands of Amerasian babies and children housed in orphanages throughout South Vietnam.

Pan Am’s involvement arose upon the tragic crash of the military cargo C-5A aircraft on April 4, 1975, the first of the scheduled Operation Babylift flights.” (Of the 314 passengers, 138 died, including 78 children.) “Within less than 24 hours, Pan AM had rerouted two 747’s and crew to Saigon to evacuate over 700 children on April 5.” Linda also gave credit to Holt International, a service organization at the forefront of the movement in helping to evacuate and relocate the thousands of orphans.

Eric Mason, Chief Marketing & Development Officer for Holt, was on hand to speak about Holt’s long history and involvement in helping children. He said, “every day at Holt is baby lift day.”

Al Topping, Station Manager in Saigon, recollected his experiences that April, including “adopting” some 300 employees and family to get them on the last Pan Am 747 leaving Saigon, circumventing the typical month’s long paperwork needed. Al’s book “The Last Flight Out” details the harrowing final days of Pan Am in Saigon.

Among the many attendees, several Pan Am stewardesses on the Babylift flights, two of the original adoptees, and an adoptive mother told their stories, sad, funny, and heart-wrenching at the same time.

Ed Trippe, President of the Pan Am Historical Foundation and son of Pan Am’s founder Juan Trippe, was in attendance. In addition, many Pan Am employees, friends of Pan Am, Babylift adoptees, and their families made this event genuinely historical.

To learn more about this and other Pan Am history, go to www.thepanammuseum.org, which has some wonderful new podcasts hosted by Pan Am Foundation Board Member Tom Betti, among other interesting exhibits, and also www.panam.org.

Pan Am: Operation BabyLift
Cradle of Aviation Museum
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Roberta Dunn
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After graduating from Bard College with a major in languages, Roberta spent a year in Germany and France before joining Trans World Airlines in the early 70’s. At TWA she became the Ambassador and Constellation Club supervisor at JFK. An interest in food fostered by her international travel lead to “Deliciously Dunn”, her catering and gift basket business for 20 years, while still working at TWA. After the demise of the airline, Roberta became the North American sales rep for La Source, a 5 star resort in Grenada. When hurricane Ivan destroyed the island, she went on to work for Airport Press. Most recently Ms. Dunn is the Skating Director at the City of Long Beach, NY skating rink. Roberta is a US Figure Skating Gold Medalist in ice dancing and has skated since she was 17. Another of her passions is photography and her photos have been used in several publications. Roberta still travels extensively, enjoys cooking and entertaining and skates practically every day.

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