Operation Babylift
1975-2025
The Secret Ability to Fly is a project that commemorates Operation Babylift and the C-5A Crash. It brings together the voices of Operation Babylift through letters and notes of gratitude and resilience.
The experiences are personal but the story is ours together.
Submit as as many notes as you wish. The project will be ongoing starting April 4, 2024. Notes will be posted throughout the year and culminate in a print edition to celebrate 50 years since Operation Babylift on April 5, 2025.
Letters of Gratitude and Resilience
Voices of Operation Babylift
To all who have supported, loved, cared for and believed in us, we thank you. The fact that you once held us in your arms, shared the same space and breathed the same air gives us an immeasurable sense of gratitude and awe. To know that we can connect today is truly the greatest gift of all.
Devaki's Story
backstory
-Devaki Murch, To Am Nursery, 1975
The Secret Ability to Fly had always seemed like a superpower that we had. A superpower known only to those of us who slipped out of deaths grasp. Some survived cancer, some survived war. I survived a plane crash. I have learned that the Secret Ability to Fly is more than a superpower. The Secret Ability to Fly is a gift from those who have loved, supported, cared and have believed in us.
I was a 9 month old infant at the time of the C-5A crash. My origins are relatively unknown. As we approach 50 years since the crash and Operation Babylift, I would like to share my gratitude to those who have touched my life and given me the “secret ability to fly”.
This story is not just mine,
but all of ours.
It is important that these stories are told in the context of time. The Vietnam War was a long, tumultuous, divisive conflict that ravaged a country. In the midst of the war and destruction there was love.
-
Love from those who yearned to be parents
-
Love from birth families who wanted nothing more than for their children to thrive. and children to thrive.
-
Love from those who acknowledged the plight of the orphans.
-
Love sheltered, cared and protected all of us and continue to do so to this day.
This project is dedicated to all of those who loved us.