OPERATION:
BABYLIFT |
The Pan Am Museum Foundation and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation are proud to present Operation BabyLift, a special reception on April 24, 2025 at 6:00 pm EDT to mark the 50th Anniversary of the evacuation of Vietnamese war orphans.
In attendance will be adoptees, adoptive parents, and veteran Pan Am flight attendants who were a part of the evacuation 50 years ago.
Adoptees and airline personnel, as well as representatives of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library will be in attendance.
Also, in attendance and available for interview will be Al Topping, Pan Am’s Director of South Vietnam & Cambodia. He helped organized the evacuation flights as North Vietnamese troops were closing in, including another evacuation of almost 400 families soon after Operation BabyLift was completed.
“I am most honored and privileged to be a part of this event. I cannot wait to see the Vietnamese babies again after all these years…all grown up as adults,” said Topping. “The work that Pan Am, Holt International, and others did to rescue these kids is the truest example of the good within the human spirit. We changed lives for the better and I will always cherish that.”
The 1990 movie “Last Flight Out” was based on his dramatic and harrowing story with James Earl Jones starring as Topping. The evening will serve as an important touchstone for the many parents and adoptees whose lives were changed forever by Pan Am’s contribution to the BabyLift.
Thursday, April 24th, 2025
6:00 PM
The Pan Am Museum Foundation
Cradle of Aviation Museum
Charles Lindbergh Boulevard
Garden City, NY 11530
Event Tickets
$150
Special Keynote Speaker
Peter Greenberg
Peter S. Greenberg is an American journalist. He was the CBS News Travel Editor, reporting regularly on The Early Show, its replacement CBS This Morning, and the CBS Evening News. He may be best known as the Travel Editor for NBC’s Today, CNBC and MSNBC. Peter was the travel correspondent for ABC’s Good Morning America from 1988 to 1995.
Peter frequently flew Pan Am in the 70/80’s covering major travel news stories. In 1984 he did a documentary story follow up to Operation Babylift for CBS called “Where Are They Now” and won an Emmy for the documentary. He is an Emmy award winning journalist and television producer in his own right.
The Pan Am Museum is located within the Cradle of Aviation Museum and is part of Nassau County’s Museum Row located on Charles Lindbergh Blvd. in East Garden City, next to Nassau Community College.
