Cal Thomas: Daring to help

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, June 12th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Fifty years ago,with the fall of Saigon imminent, the U.S. launched Operation Babylift, an urgent effort to evacuate thousands of children out of South Vietnam. But not every child made it onto those planes.

BROWN: Along the coast, a Christian orphanage raced against time to save the children in its care, children left out of the airlift.

WORLD commentator Cal Thomas had a hand in that rescue, and he’s never forgotten what he saw.

CAL THOMAS: Fifty years ago the director of the Cam Ranh Christian Orphanage decided it was time to act. Pastor Nguyen Xuan Ha - known to everyone as Mr. Ha put 85 children and staff on two buses and headed for Saigon. From there he hoped they could flee to safety.

One of the buses was shot at by a North Vietnamese soldier and the buses separated. Somehow they re-united in Saigon. After renting a boat and getting some distance from shore, the engine quit. For five days they drifted before a Thailand tanker approached. At first the captain refused to help. But later he changed his mind, turned around and towed them for a while. After cutting the tow line, a group of fishermen stepped in and towed them toward Singapore.

Soldiers there refused to let them ashore. Mr. Ha wrote a name on a piece of paper and asked a soldier if he could locate a missionary and church planter named Ralph Neighbour to help.

Neighbour was relatively new to Singapore—an island nation of more than two million people at the time. The soldier miraculously found him. Neighbour is now 96 years old but still remembers clearly what happened next. He wrote this to me in a recent email:

"Singapore government kept them out on St. John's island. Our missionary team took clothes and food out. USA embassy contacted Swiss United Nations Refugee Center. Special flight arrived. Children whisked thru Singapore on bus with windows covered. Government feared losing neutrality during war. No official record they were there."

I knew Neighbour from when he was a pastor in Houston. I worked at a local TV station at the time. He called me and asked if I could help get the orphans and staff to the U.S…and find temporary housing for them. I contacted some Washington officials I knew. They got permission for the orphans to enter the country. When they arrived in Houston, a church couple with a large ranch offered them shelter and food. Buckner Children and Family Services in Dallas assisted with processing and adoptions.

This past week I’ve been in Vietnam to mark the 50th anniversary of the orphans’ escape. I had the opportunity to interview many who made the commemorative trip.

Sam Schrade was a baby when he was rescued from the streets of Saigon. He’s now 51. He owns a successful media business in Houston. How would his life have been different had he stayed in Vietnam? He says the fact that he is of "mixed race" (American-Asian) would make it "doubly hard" because the Vietnamese "look down upon such people. I have been told by many people I would not have had a good life here because of the race issue and a government that didn't want me."

Kelli St. German, now 56, thinks she might have been growing coffee beans and doing hard labor had she not come to America. She also believes she would not have developed a strong faith because of the state's antipathy toward religion. She became a teacher for 30 years.

Thomas Ho, the oldest orphan, is now 76. He was 25 when he left Vietnam. He helped organize the evacuation and prepared small amounts of food for the children. In America he became a chef and then studied to become an engineer. He says if he had stayed in Vietnam, "I might not have survived, especially at my age now. Life here is very difficult. A lot of the food is not very healthy."

Reuniting with these adults, many of whom I met when they were children, is a reminder that there are things far greater than politics, celebrities, and the petty jealousies that are the focus of too many of us.

There are few greater blessings than to have had a role in changing these lives for the better. These former orphans are blessed. So am I.

I’m Cal Thomas.

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