Operation Baby Lift survivor finds home and healing in St. Louis
- Devaki Murch
- May 1
- 3 min read
Updated: May 7
Fifty years after the fall of Saigon, Jim Zimmerly recalls his childhood growing up in St. Louis and reckoning with being a war refugee.
Author: Michelle Li
Published: 5:03 AM CDT May 7, 2025
Updated: 5:03 AM CDT May 7, 2025
SAINT LOUIS, Mo. — It was supposed to be a mission of mercy and compassion, but it turned out to be one of the most heartbreaking headlines of the Vietnam War era.
Operation Baby Lift launched in the chaotic days following the fall of Saigon in a final attempt to evacuate children and babies—many orphaned—out of war-torn Vietnam. However, the inaugural flight ended in disaster. A U.S. Air Force C-5 Galaxy plane, packed with more than 300 people, experienced a door latch malfunction and crashed into a rice paddy, leaving 175 people alive.
Among the survivors was Jim Zimmerly, who was not quite a year old and weighed just 13 pounds.
"This is me when I first arrived in a swing," says Zimmerly, flipping through an aged three-ring binder photobook. Jim arrived a day before his first birthday. His late mother, Wanda, told Zimmerly she remembered getting that phone call on the house landline because back then, people only called with serious news that late at night.
Eventually, Zimmerly got on a flight to San Francisco or Los Angeles and then to the St. Louis Lambert International Airport, where he joined his new family with two siblings.
Zimmerly said he grew up like any kid from St. Louis in the '70s, '80s and '90s. He went to the then-Country Day School and played football. Not only was the one of the only Asian-looking kids on the football field, he was one of the few in the entire school. Now, Country Day is MICDS after merging with Mary Institute, and the student population has vastly diversified.
Throughout that time, Wanda kept in touch with other adoptive families and crash survivors. They faced medical and legal hurdles together. They even took reunion trips together as they grew up in different cities across the country. Even though Zimmerly's mom was the driving force for these connections, it gave him a sense of confidence and belonging.
"I've been friends—lifelong friends—with other adopted kids and other plane crash survivors, too," Zimmerly said. "We're all connected."
Years later, Jim, his mom and his sister, Melissa, went to Vietnam together. They even visited the site of the plane crash, where locals still had pieces of the plane. Jim also met his biological mother and extended family, with the support of his mom.
"She encouraged it," Zimmerly said. "She was more emotional about it than I was—she was the one really crying."
Zimmerly has always kept things simple. He's a bachelor who likes concerts, gaming and hanging out.
"I just live my life," Zimmerly said. "Just trying to make it here in the U.S."
He can find the extraordinary in the ordinary. His story is both.
"I'm very fortunate to get out," Zimmerly said. "I never really thought about it this way until recently. I am a war refugee. I'm definitely a survivor of a war-torn country."
Operation Baby Lift successfully evacuated more than 3,000 Vietnamese babies and children to the U.S. and other countries and also paved the way for more international adoptions out of Vietnam. However, over time, the efforts have been criticized regarding the ethical and long-term impact, and even questioned whether some children were orphaned at all.
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