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Today was so special. Paul, the Pastor, teacher, orphanage volunteer and Vietnam history buff met us at the hotel and we embarked on our day of tribute to Twila Donelson, our baby girl's great grandmother.

Operation Babylift was a mission undertaken by U.S. troops and the government under President Gerald Ford to get thousands of displaced Vietnamese children out of the country. President Ford allocated funds to rescue 2,000 orphans and called it Operation Babylift. The first mission was the plane Twila Donelson was on. On April 4th, 1975 the plane took off and immediately malfunctioned when one of the doors flew off, taking a chunk of the plane's tail with it. The captain, Bud Traynor, crash landed the C-5 plane into a rice paddy. Of the more than 300 passengers, 170 survived. 78 children and 50+ adults died including Jason's grandmother, Twila. All of the survivors were on the top portion of the plane and the passengers and babies on the bottom all died. Twila Donelson was one of the casualties on the bottom cargo area.
Our new friend and history expert, Paul, had the honor of taking the surviving pilot of Operation Babylift, Col. Bud Traynor, to the crash site last year. The pilot recalled the mission like it was yesterday. He was able to explain what happened and how he responded. He spoke of how the door flew off and when the tail broke he had no ability to control the plane. He was flying over the South China Sea and turned the plane around toward land, and was able to crash land in a rice field. He said he landed upside down and realized he was still alive. He got out of the plane and and saw the cargo area crushed with the upper passenger section intact. He mentioned it was his years as a crop duster that gave him the skills to land the massive C-5 with as much grace as possible.

Nature was on our side as we arrived to the crash site with cloud cover and a temperature a cool 80 degrees. We walked around the field and to the river, tracing the flight path. Jason took his drone out and flew the path of the crash landing. A alter was in the paddy and we approached it to have a ceremony. We brought flowers representing Twila's four children, eight grandchildren, and five great grandchildren. We lit incense and Pastor Paul said a prayer. It was beautiful and emotional. Twila must have known we were doing something special and important because she was so well behaved throughout the ceremony.

We were so grateful to have the opportunity to go to the site and pay our tribute to Jason's grandmother and Twila's great grandmother today. It was such an honor to be there.

We left the site and drove back to Saigon and had lunch at a popular place recommended by a Vietnamese friend of mine. Best food we've had in Vietnam! Thanks Will.

After the emotional day we relaxed in the hotel and ordered Banh Mi's for dinner.

Tomorrow we go to Cambodia.