SA's Young family 'complete' after adopting two girls during Vietnam War

Australia Broadcast Center

a day ago

Ute Young was only expecting one baby from Vietnam when she arrived in Melbourne in the early hours of Christmas Eve in 1973 — instead, she was handed three.
After two failed attempts and months of waiting to adopt a little girl into their family of four, the Youngs received a phone call at 11pm on December 23 at their home in Renmark, in South Australia.
A baby rescued during the Vietnam War would be arriving for them at 5am the following day at Melbourne Airport, more than 700 kilometres away.
"I was panicking. I was beside myself," Mrs Young recalled.
But with help from a travel agent friend, Mrs Young and her eight-year-old son, Michael, made the frantic three-hour drive to Adelaide Airport before jumping on a plane to Melbourne to meet their newest family member.
It was there she finally met her new daughter, eight-week-old Nguyen Thi Nheim, fondly known as Thi.
However, once Mrs Young arrived at the holding location, she was asked to take not only her new daughter but also two other babies to Adelaide.
"There was another baby for a Monash couple [in South Australia's Riverland], and another that wasn't very well that had to go through to Perth," she recalled.
Adding to the chaos, when Mrs Young tried to book her return flight to South Australia, she was told it would be near impossible on Christmas Eve, with all the flights to Adelaide fully booked.
"There were these two lovely-looking ladies sitting in the row waiting to board the plane … I plucked up the courage and said to them, 'Please, would you take these two babies to Adelaide?'," she said.
The strangers agreed and boarded the flight, taking the two tiny war orphans with them.
Later, as Mrs Young contemplated how she would get through the night camped with a new baby and her son as they waited for a flight, a Christmas miracle occurred.
Mrs Young was taken aside by the checking agent and allowed to board a plane back to Adelaide with Michael and his new sister, Thi.
They arrived home in Renmark in time to celebrate Christmas Day with Mrs Young's husband, Des, and their other son, Peter.
The Youngs were one of many Australian families who adopted children from Vietnam during the war, which came to a brutal end in 1975 when North Vietnam captured Saigon in the south, following the withdrawal of the US and allied military forces.
As the war ended, about 3,000 orphaned or displaced children were airlifted from Vietnam to multiple Western countries in an initiative known as Operation Babylift.
So two years after Thi's arrival, this military rescue operation brought another daughter, six-year-old Tran, into the Youngs' home.
Their family was now complete, with two little girls and their adored big brothers.
Thi does not know a life before Australia.
"Obviously I knew I was adopted, but growing up in a country town … I didn't feel any different to anybody," she said.
Thi, who now lives in Adelaide and has two daughters of her own, Bella and Aeisha, says she has never struggled with her adoption history.
"I know some people feel either upset or resentment that their parents didn't want them," she said.
"I kind of look at it as my parents must have loved me very much to give up a child.
"As a parent now, I don't know if I could do that."
Now 52 and 56 respectively, Thi and Tran are still as close as they were growing up in regional Australia.
"We have a great relationship. I know she's always there for me, I'm always there for her," Thi said.
The Youngs celebrate important family occasions together whenever they can, but Christmas 2023 was particularly special — it marked 50 years to the day since Thi met her new family in Australia.
Thi says her mother's bravery and generosity in making space in her family for two girls needing a home 50 years ago still inspires her.
"It's an incredible thing to do," she said.
Military history section curator at the Australian War Memorial Emily Hyles said the Vietnam War had been "long and bloody" with millions of people killed and displaced.
She said families were desperately fleeing the fighting, food was scarce, and children were handed over to orphanages in the hope they would be cared for.
"[Then US] president [Gerald] Ford decided that we really had to do something about all these poor children who were essentially unwanted and orphans," Ms Hyles said.
"I think it was a really last-ditch effort to do something decent for these poor kids.
"There were at least 100 children on each flight, and famously they were loaded in cardboard boxes."
Ads were placed in newspapers asking Australian families who were interested in adoption to express their desire to give a home to a child from Vietnam.
"War's haphazard. It's not organised, it's chaotic, and that would have been reflected in the way these poor kids were brought out."
As for Thi, she says she is curious about what blood relatives she might have in Vietnam, but feels content with her life in Australia.
"It would be great to know and it's also good for history reasons," she said.