50 years on, RAAF nurse meets bub she flew home to his new SA parents in a stirring reunion
In the chaotic days leading up to the fall of Saigon, thousands of orphaned babies were evacuated out of Vietnam – South Australia’s Darren Wasley, a 30-year Army veteran, was one.
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Proudly patriotic, Darren Wasley grew up as a country boy in the Riverland and has dedicated almost three decades to serving his country, working his way up in the Australian Army.
But the Warrant Officer Class One (WO1) was born a world away, or at least more than 6000km from his childhood home at Gurra Gurra near Berri, in Vietnam to a Vietnamese mother and US serviceman father.
Aged just five months old, he was among about 3000 orphaned and abandoned babies to be evacuated from the conflict-weary country to places such as Australia in a US-led military manoeuvre, Operation Babylift.
During the week, in a stirring reunion at RSL Care SA’s Myrtle Bank residence, he met one of the RAAF nurses who helped bring the babies home to the families overseas who’d adopted them – Valmai, or Val, Lawrence, 87. He is the first baby the former nurse has ever been reunited with.
Now 49, Warrant Officer Walsey tells how he arrived as a “scrawny little fellow” and spent five months in hospital in Adelaide before his doting new parents Denis and Val Wasley could take him home, to their property on the opposite side of the River Murray to Berri.
“Mum says when she first saw me I had pus coming out my ears, a little malnourished belly, twig legs and was really tiny … I was five months old but the size of a newborn, weighing less than 4kg,” he says.
Warrant Officer Wasley says his parents did an “amazing job” rearing him and his seven siblings – six are adopted while one is “homegrown”.
“They always said in their mind, ‘children are children, it doesn’t matter where they come from’,” he says.
“They were pretty worried waiting for me because they’d heard a flight carrying orphans had crashed and didn’t know if it was the one I was on
“Then, when I got here they weren’t immediately notified as it wasn’t known if I would survive.”
He thrived but said “as a little Asian kid in a country town” he learned at an early age he was adopted.
”Obviously, I looked different to my parents and they shared with me the information they had – we had my (birth) mother’s name on the birth certificate but it just said my father was an ‘American serviceman’.
“I’ve never felt compelled to ever go over and look even though Mum and Dad have always said they will support me to do so … I just feel my mum and dad are Mum and Dad.”
In fact, it was wanting to follow in the footsteps of both his father and grandfather, who each spent time in national service, that inspired him to want to join the Army.
“I remember as a little tacker, climbing into dad’s and grandpa’s wardrobes and playing with their Army stuff,” he says.
“It was a childhood dream; from as long as I can remember I wanted to join the Army.”
Warrant Officer Wasley describes as “surreal” his meeting with the former RAAF nurse.
”It has actually been a bit surreal really to meet someone who was in Vietnam and potentially put me on the plane … the impact (on my life) is where I am standing now,” he says.
“I have four children, two step children and am living in the (Adelaide) Hills – the best place in the world – just enjoying life as an Australian.”
The sliding door moment is not lost on Mrs Lawrence.
“When I first heard Darren was coming I got a bit emotional as I’ve never actually again met any of the babies (from that flight) … I just felt the tears come,” she said.
“I have often thought about those babies and wondered how they got on … I have thought about them many times.”
Mrs Lawrence was assigned to the second of two Australian flights, with 107 babies on board, out of Saigon on April 4, 1975 – tragically, a US flight scheduled in-between with 330 passengers on board crash-landed soon after takeoff, leaving 156 dead.
“It was quite chaotic, especially after the plane crashed … we had babies in boxes, laid out on Medevac litters … toddlers and older children,” she says.
“Today, my memory of it is very sketchy but I have scenes in my mind.
“I do remember that a few cardboard boxes were used for the small babies … most babies were placed on (rescue) litters fastened along the deck with up to four babies on each canvas and a long strap in case of turbulence.
“I was positioned towards the front of the aircraft and remember looking back and seeing a mass of babies and children … the oldest of the children, as well as adults, were seated on the side in webbed seats facing the centre of the aircraft with the Medevac litters down the centre.
“(Meeting Darren) has allowed me to go back to that day … it has been wonderful.”
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