15 July 2024
After decades of war and with the imminent fall of Saigon in 1975, a humanitarian crisis was unfolding in South Vietnam.
As Communist tanks neared the borders, Australians and Americans were called on to evacuate thousands of South Vietnamese, including many war orphans.
A humanitarian mission named Operation Babylift was launched to take orphans to Australia and the United States.
During the refugee evacuation, eight Royal Australian Air Force C-130 Hercules and two C-47 Dakotas were dispatched.
Among the hundreds of orphaned children was a five-month-old 4kg malnourished baby, who was adopted by a family in Berri, South Australia. He is now Warrant Officer Class 1 (WO1) Darren Wasley.
Today, the actions of those during Operation Babylift are not lost on him, knowing the airlift gave him a new lease of life.
Almost 50 years later, on July 3, WO1 Wasley met 87-year-old Val Lawrence, an Air Force nurse who was aboard one of the RAAF aircraft headed for Saigon, at an RSL-run nursing home in Adelaide.
“Meeting RAAF nurse Val Lawrence was surreal; it was like meeting your midwife,” WO1 Wasley said.
“There were so many children, but we now know she was on my flight.”
Ms Lawrence said she was elated when she first found out one of the orphans was coming to meet her. She had never had the opportunity to see any of the rescued children.
She said her actions on the mission were only a small part of a bigger picture.
“I always find myself wondering where the kids are today and what they’re doing,” Ms Lawrence said.
“These days my memories of it all are kind of sketchy; it was 50 years ago. It all happened so quickly. I was one of the four nurses and there were so many children.
"I am so grateful that Darren came to meet me and I will cherish this moment.”
About 200 orphans where evacuated to Australia. It was not long after the last flight on April 17, 1975, that North Vietnamese Army tanks rolled into Saigon.
Growing up, WO1 Wasley always knew he was different because he did not look like his parents.
“They were white Aussies, I was not,” he said.
In his teens, WO1 Wasley was an Army cadet with an interest in war history, so he joined the Army in 1994 as a reserve rifleman.
After he decided to go full-time, a knee injury during training at Kapooka shifted his career to a role in armoured corps, where he spent the majority of his time at 3/4 Cav Regt in Townsville.
Today, he is the Honours and Awards secretary for Army Headquarters and is studying at the Australian War College.
WO1 Wasley plans to visit Ms Lawrence again, and is hoping to meet some of her family.
