Hoi An (Vietnam) (AFP) – Airlifted from Saigon as an 11-month-old baby, Odile Dussart is now back to living in the land of her birth hoping to find her biological mother.
Dussart was one of more than 3,000 children part of Operation Babylift. Removed by the United States at the end of the Vietnam War, they were eventually adopted by families across North America, Europe and Australia.
The stories of the evacuees and others involved illustrate the way the conflict still resonates 50 years later.
The very first flight of the controversial mass evacuation -- with Dussart among 314 people on board -- crashed minutes after take-off from Saigon.
One of the 176 survivors, she was adopted by a couple in France. Now 51, she has returned to seek her Vietnamese family.
"I just want to know if my biological mother is alive or dead... I want to know her story," she told AFP at her newly rented home overlooking the rice fields of Hoi An, where the ancient city centre is listed by UNESCO.
"Maybe it's impossible to find her. But I have hope."
The communists of North Vietnam defeated the US-backed South on April 30, 1975, and on Wednesday a grand celebration in Ho Chi Minh City -- formerly Saigon -- will mark 50 years since its capture.
The children of Operation Babylift were part of a mass exodus from South Vietnam in the run-up to its fall. Some were babies of US soldiers, others taken from orphanages and hospitals.
The operation, authorised by then-US president Gerald Ford, prompted questions about whether the children were all really orphans or if they had been separated from their families or given up in a desperate bid to get them out of the war-torn country.
The very first flight on April 4, 1975, was a catastrophe.
After its rear access door blew off and fell into the South China Sea, the C5-A Galaxy plane crash-landed, with 78 children among the 138 dead.
"I remember seeing the sky, the clouds and bodies being tossed around and sucked out the back rear entrance," said US Air Force medical technician Phillip Wise, who later lost consciousness.
"I did not want folks to know that I was affiliated with that mission" for almost a decade, he added on a visit to Ho Chi Minh City this month to mark the disaster's 50th anniversary.
Dussart -- whose Vietnamese name is Bui Thi Thanh Khiet -- was treated for her injuries in Saigon, then sent to San Francisco, and finally put on a flight to France.
"I had bruises on my back, neck, and head. At 11 months, I was only the size of six-month-old baby," she said.
But Dussart does not identify as a victim: she describes the crash as a "non-event" in her life.
"No vision, no sound, no smell," she said.
"People who died in the crash, military who had PTSD, families who lost (loved ones)... and parents who expected to have babies in their arms but had only dead bodies... they are the victims, not me."
James Ross Tung Dudas was three years old when he was airlifted from Saigon on Operation Babylift's second flight, and has been searching for 10 years for his birth family on intermittent trips from the United States.
He travelled to Vung Tau, close to Ho Chi Minh City, this month to find more information about a woman he believes could be his mother, and is awaiting the results of a DNA test.
"It would be nice to get to know who they are, where exactly I came from," said 53-year-old Dudas, who was born Hoang Thanh Tung.
"I am mostly American. But my heart still says I am Vietnamese," he added by phone from New Jersey, where he grew up.
Both evacuees grew up as minorities in predominantly white communities.
"All my life in France... French people considered me Asian, not French, because of my face," Dussart explained.
"My principle of life is French. I am French with my mentality. But I think my soul and my behaviour is Vietnamese," she added, proudly showing off the Vietnamese nationality certificate she obtained last year.
Dudas works in the garment industry and Dussart was a lawyer in the town of Saint-Raphael in the French Riviera before starting over in Vietnam.
"I am thankful for life," said Dussart. "And thankful to the pilot and military who risked their lives to save mine."
