Welcome to the Carried Away by Ross Meador book tour hosted by Author Marketing Experts. 

About Carried Away

“Ordinary Teenager, Extraordinary Circumstances”

In 1975, a young man boarded a flight to Saigon, searching for a way to make a difference. What he didn’t know was that within a year, he’d be part of Operation Babylift, risking everything to evacuate children as war engulfed the city.

Carried Away: A Memoir of Rescue and Survival Among the Orphans of the Vietnam War tells the true story of Ross Meador’s time in Vietnam—from his arrival with a small nonprofit to his pivotal role in a massive rescue mission. The book offers a rare perspective from someone who lived in the orphanages and helped facilitate some of the final flights out of the country.

This is a story of presence: of showing up, staying, and acting when others could not.

Guest Post from the Author

I grew up during the Vietnam War years and was aware of the horrible tragedy being inflicted upon the Vietnamese people. The plight of the war orphans was especially compelling, and I felt driven to help.

I learned of a group called Friends of Children of Vietnam, dedicated to helping the orphans. At 19 years old, I had no money or resources. I hitchhiked from San Diego to the organization’s office in Denver. There, I learned that the group had no office in Vietnam, but wanted to start one. However, they had $500 and a one-way ticket to Saigon. My dream was coming true.

I arrived in Vietnam in early 1974. What I lacked in experience, I had in passion and enthusiasm. I visited orphanages whenever I could and wherever they may be located. The conditions I found were deplorable – filth, disease, starvation. I took pictures and wrote stories about my experience. I stirred the hearts of some generous Americans.  A few donations trickled in, enough to rent a house big enough to take in some of the orphans from the overcrowded orphanages. Our international adoption program was born.

Soon after renting our first house,

Cherie Clark and her family joined the efforts. Cherie was a nurse with a deep commitment to helping the Vietnamese people. She immediately took charge, and we began to expand. Within a few months, we had over 100 children in our care and completed the first of our international adoptions. I was lucky enough to escort many of the children on flights back to the U.S. I said “Here’s your son!” to anxious parents.

By the end of 1974, our operation was in full swing. We opened several more childcare facilities and regularly sent adoptees on Pan Am flights to Honolulu and beyond. Little did we know the end was near.

In December 1974, the US Congress cut off military aid to South Vietnam. Nevertheless, the country could hang on for another year. By February, however, the North Vietnamese succeeded in taking control of large areas of the South, and we began to realize that the inevitable was upon us. At that point, we had hundreds of children in our custody. Giving them back to the orphanages or abandoning them to fend for themselves was never an option. If we had to leave, our kids were coming too. That was the birth of Operation Babylift.

The INS agreed

to waive visa requirements for the children, but we were on our own for transport. We spoke with every airline and cargo carrier in the country to try to arrange a flight. Eventually, we found Ed Daly of World Airways, who agreed to take our kids. The first flight was on April 2, 1975, carrying 57 of our older kids. Despite government efforts to block the flight, including cutting off the runway lights at takeoff, the children arrived safely in the U.S. 

By April 3, the world press was buzzing about Friends of Children of Vietnam and the World Airways flight. Pressure mounted in Washington. President Ford stepped up and agreed to fund flights for the remaining children.

The first government-funded flight ended in disaster. As the plane reached altitude, the rear doors blew off. The plane crashed in a rice field, killing half of the children aboard. I was at the airport and saw the smoke rise from the sky.

The military flights resumed

a few days later on smaller cargo planes, with the babies placed in cardboard boxes on the floor. I joined a flight that landed first at a U.S. airbase in the Philippines and then continued to San Francisco in a traditional passenger aircraft. The next day, I flew back to Saigon to continue helping with the evacuation.

Back in Vietnam, chaos reigned. The nuns who ran the jungle orphanages panicked. Many loaded their children on a bus and brought them to us. We had closed our countryside facility, so hundreds of children were squeezed into our Saigon facility. The evacuation flights continued until April 26, when the last of our children were flown out, together with the American staff.

I stayed behind. Two days later, the airport was bombed and closed to fixed-wing flights. The next morning, our house was attacked as the army from the North took over the city. I fled to the Embassy and stayed until the early morning of April 30. I was one of the last American civilians lifted from the roof of the Embassy and flown to a waiting aircraft carrier in the South China Sea.

My perspective

on our work has changed as I watched the children grow into adults. At the time of their adoption, many of the adults act as if the children’s lives begin the day they get off the plane in the U.S. Most of the adoptees, however, retain a powerful connection to Vietnam and their birth families, whether or not they ever meet them. This realization complicates the story. It is not only about the joy of finding a new family, but the sadness of losing one. I have no regrets; the orphanages were terrible places for a child to grow up, and the adopting families were generally wonderful. But it is hard to be orphaned, and for many of the kids, being adopted doesn’t eliminate the longing for their first mother.

Carried Away Book Tour

Follow along on the tour hosted by Author Marketing Experts to see what others have to say!

• April 28th
• The Faerie Review
• @sudeshnablogs
• April 29th
• Novels Alive
• Stacey Ann Says
• April 30th
• One More Exclamation
• @therearenobadbooks
• @_brownbooknerd_
• May 1st
• The History Shelf
• @jinxxysbookcorner
• May 2nd
• A Wonderful World of Words
• StoreyBook Reviews
• All Things Bookish 

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