New Perspectives: Regis University, February 2025

GALLERY

Operation Babylift // New Perspectives exhibit is an opportunity to share what I have discovered from the time I was doing school reports until now. The collection incorporates personal files, administration files and artifacts from the Vietnam experience by those who were there with the orphans.  

I have collaborated with The Center for the Study of War Experience at Regis University to expand the awareness of Operation Babylift and offer an opportunity for other adoptees and communities  to engage in this exhibit and presentations over the course of the semester. 

Records from the war are as fragmented and chaotic as the time period as they were created. Order and preservation was at the mercy of the enemy, but detail and meticulous record keeping was crucial. The information we have is limited. The details of our past is missing. The Operation Babylift Collection will bring together these lists, files and records to begin to create a more cohesive story. Together.

These resources have been collected over the years and consisted mostly of mainstream media and my personal files. In the last year I have been given the opportunity to explore adoption agency files that have been boxed for nearly half of a century, unveiling timelines, correspondence and experiences that had only been witnessed by those directly involved. 

This year has given me gifts that have filled in these spaces - insulation from the plane that crashed, a survivor manifest with my name on it, VHS copies of the newscasts, a story cloth depicting the war scenes, a front page news paper from April 5th - and my own adoption file. 

These gifts were the nudges that said:  Do this.  Make this happen.  It matters. Now.

The contributions from others demonstrate the opportunity to fill in some of the unknowns for fellow adoptees, families and those involved through collaborative resources and networks and to create awareness of our perception of the war, transnational adoption and ourselves.

The exhibit includes images of the plane crash with commentary from Col. Bud Traynor, the pilot, stories from Friends For All Children, newscasts, files, books, and reports from the military and USAID, correspondence and images as President Ford greeted the children upon arrival at the Presidio, picture boards from the FFAC, artifacts from the adoptees and the opportunity to learn and share our own stories.

It takes facts and reveals multiple possibilities. It takes the captions and expands the story. The names on the lists have become real people with loved ones who miss them daily. 

We find stories that tell the tale of friendship and kindness, not just Hollywood war. Files stored for half a century offer me a piece of my history.  

This is the power of identity through archives.  

Created by what surrounds us. 

Shaped by who we are.  

It is as if the narrow lens through which I have viewed my life has exploded into fractals. 

The same but different. 

Every time I shift or move, it changes, but still a part of the whole. I call this The Kaleidoscope of Truth.

- devaki murch, adoptee, exhibit curator

The Regis Center for the Study of War Experience

Stories from Wartime, a unique undergraduate course open to the public, delves into the human dimensions of war and conflict through a multidisciplinary lens. As participants—both students and the broader community—engage with these narratives, they explore what it means to bear individual and collective witness to historic and modern warfare.

Facilitated by the Center, Stories from Wartime is a space where veterans and civilians can share their experiences openly. Doing so fosters rich dialogue, empathy, and understanding about the complexities and nuances of war experience. Over its 30-year history, the course has hosted a range of notable speakers, including authors Ocean Vuong, Adam Hochschild, Roberto Lovato, and Alex Kershaw, and has featured guest lecturers and local viewpoints.