The Last Babylift Babies
Byron and Lana Noone and Their Adopted Children . . .
By Jim Belshaw
Reprinted with permission
from the
January/February 2004 Edition
of
"The VVAVeteran"
Heather Constance Noone/Mai Ngoc Tran was born circa February
1975, "circa" being as close to an actual date of birth the records
are able to reflect. Like her Vietnamese name, one created by an orphanage in
Vietnam, the date of birth is an approximation, the best people could do at
the time. She died on May 17, 1975, in a Long Island, N.Y., hospital, the 3-month-old
adopted daughter of Byron and Lana Noone.
She had been a very sick baby from the day of her premature birth, afflicted
by diseases that attacked her body and the circumstances of her environment
- Vietnam, the spring of 1975, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong closing on
Saigon. The Long Island newspaper Newsday said of her death: "She died
of war."
Lana Noone, 28 years old at the time, made her daughter a promise. "As
I sat in her hospital room, watching the VC marching toward Saigon as Heather's
life was fading away, I thought: I have to do something. I didn't know what,
but I made a promise to her that I would do what I could to make sure no one
forgot about Operation Babylift". In August 2003, the promise became a
book - "Global Mom: Notes From a Pioneer Adoptive Family," by Lana
Noone, with Byron, Jennie and Jason Noone.
In 1974, Lana and her husband, Byron, were considering adoption. She was a classical
flutist; he was chairman of the English Department at the Lawrence Country Day
School and an instructor at a community college. They had been married seven
years and were childless.
At the large adoption agency they visited in New York City, they were told that
the wait for a domestic adoption could be very long. In the course of conversation,
the social worker asked if they would consider adopting a baby from Vietnam.
Until the question was asked, they had not considered it at all. That changed
instantly.
"The moment she said that, it was as if the light bulb went off,"
Lana said. "We thought: Great idea, how do we start? It was that quick."
In early 1975, they began the process, compiling dossiers, answering the many
questions, filling out page after page of documentation, being fingerprinted,
providing references. They were told they probably would have a baby in nine
months to a year. Then, on April 2, 1975, President Gerald Ford signed the orders
authorizing Operation Babylift, the airlift of orphans from Vietnam. The first
plane to leave was a C-5A Galaxy that left Ton Son Nhut airport on April 4.
It carried 228 children. Shortly after takeoff, the rear cargo door blew open.
The plane crashed, killing 128 people - 78 children, 50 adults. But through
the courageous efforts of the pilot and crew and others on the plane, many were
saved.
Approximately 3,000 children were evacuated from Vietnam between April 2 and
April 29. Heather, the adopted daughter of the Noones was one of them. Jennifer,
another adopted daughter, was the last to leave Vietnam.
"When Heather died, there were three babies left, and they were so ill
the doctors weren't sure they would pull through," Lana said. "Two
were doing a little bit better, but the third was very sick. That baby became
our daughter, Jennifer Nguyen Noone, the last baby from the Babylift."
In 1979, the Noones adopted a Korean baby who would become their son, Jason
Paik Noone.
Jennifer, 28, a cum laude psychology graduate of Drew University went on to
earn a Master's degree in social work at Columbia University. She has spoken
to adoptive parents' groups nationwide, served as assistant director and counselor
for Holt International Camps for International Adoptees and has been interviewed
in numerous publications and served on panels examining international adoption
issues.
Jason, 26, graduated from Hofstra University and earned a Master's degree from
the New York Institute of Technology. He teaches at a Long Island high school
and is the father of an infant daughter - Heather Marie Song Yee Noone.
Lana Noone said the sibling rivalry that all children experience came with a
unique twist in her house. "When they were very young, they got into an
argument and Jason said to Jennie, 'My birth country is better than your birth
country.' Only when you're raising two children from two different countries
would you hear that."
She remembers the day Jennifer refused to ride the school bus, but wouldn't
tell her parents why. Lana asked a neighbor who had a child on the bus. The
neighbor said the bus driver kept talking to Jennifer in that "funny language.'
Lana went to the school and talked to the bus driver. She said he was a "lovely
gentleman." And something else, too - a Vietnam veteran.
"Because Jennifer was so quiet, he thought she had just come from Vietnam
and he wanted to make her feel welcome," she said. "He used some Vietnamese
phrases. I thanked him for his kindness and told him it was kind of stressing
her out a little bit. She didn't understand a word of what he was saying. He
was kind as he could be and after that she rode the bus again."
Lana's husband, Byron, died of cancer in 2002. In August, Lana published "Global
Mom: Notes From a Pioneer Adoptive Family," a title that came from a chance
meeting at a musical competition. "I spoke with someone that I would see
only once a year," she said. "She said that she and her husband had
adopted a baby from China. I said, "That's great." She said that Byron
and I had been the reason they did it. She called us pioneers. I guess we stood
out in the crowd with our Vietnamese baby. I had no idea we were having that
kind of impact on people's lives."
Reflections on Operation Babylift come with a mixture of gratitude and sadness
for her.
"I'm awfully grateful I got to be a mom, but I do grieve for the birth
families. At the time, there was nothing else that could have been done except
for Babylift. The people who evacuated those babies are heroes to me. They sacrificed
time, energy, and in some cases, their lives. It was an extraordinary gesture
by people who gave so much so these children might survive."
So she wrote a book that people might always remember. She established a Web
page <http://www.vietnambabylift.org>
that provides more information and links to other Internet sites.
"I made a promise to Heather that I would do what I could to make sure
no one forgot," she said.