Steven George was one of some 3,000 children airlifted out of Vietnam following the Fall of Saigon more than 50 years ago. The refugee airlift was called “Operation Babylift.”
Last fall, HPR featured another person who was airlifted back then, Devaki Murch. She grew up on Kauaʻi and is on a mission to get the adoption records from that time into the hands of people like herself. She presented George with his file on Monday afternoon.
Murch was to give a talk at the University of Hawaiʻi on Tuesday afternoon to share her journey of gratitude. But she is keenly sensitive to the situation of older international adoptees.
NPR last week highlighted the case of a woman who was adopted by an Air Force veteran as a child in Iran decades ago. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security notified her of removal proceedings because her paperwork wasn’t in order. The 2000 Child Citizenship Act gives automatic U.S. citizenship to most children who were adopted overseas, but adoptees prior to that could be vulnerable.
Steven George lives in ʻAiea today. His parents attended the University of Hawaiʻi, and they moved to Wyoming when he was a preschooler. He traveled to Vietnam to mark the anniversary last year.
Murch, also speaking to HPR, recalled her first meeting with Sister Mary Nelle Gage, who was with the adoption agency Friends for All Children.
This story aired on The Conversation on March 3, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m.
