Courage and Compassion: Looking Back on Operation Babylift

“Be diligent in serving the poor. Love the poor, honor them, my children, as you would honor Christ Himself.”

St. Louise de Marillac

By Sebastian Isaacs, Communications Intern

S. Anne Darlene Wojtowicz celebrated her 60th anniversary as a Sister of Charity in 2025.

On April 3, 1975, President Gerald Ford announced an emergency evacuation to bring more than 3,000 Vietnamese children to the United States. Three days later, Sister of Charity of Cincinnati Anne Darlene Wojtowicz returned to U.S. soil after spending nine months in Saigon with Catholic Relief Services, where she oversaw a nursery of children awaiting adopted by American families.

S. Anne Darlene accompanied the first successful Operation Babylift flight, which landed at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport, escorting more than 100 Vietnamese orphans to the United States – less than a month before the end of the Vietnam War.

Despite concerns for her safety after the first Operation Babylift flight had tragically crash-landed just one day prior to her departure, S. Anne Darlene helped many orphans transition to their new homes upon returning to the United States.

S. Anne Darlene believes she was called to minister in Biên Hòa after a conversation with the late S. Rose Cheng, a Sister of Charity nurse and midwife. When S. Rose went to Vietnam in 1974 to serve with Catholic Relief Services, S. Anne Darlene followed in August of that year. She was 29 years old and the only member of her immediate family to serve, as her two brothers were ineligible for the draft.

She ministered alongside Sisters Rose Cheng and Kateri Maureen Koverman, who managed the adoption proceedings.

The work was challenging. S. Anne Darlene recalls that the nursery she oversaw often held as many as 86 babies and children at a time. Though she had a dedicated staff, many of the children were sick, suffering from malnutrition or pneumonia.

In a letter to her fellow Band member, S. Delia Sizler, S. Anne Darlene described one difficult day: “I took Ms. Koverman with me to Mau Than, a small village about 40 minutes from my place, to pick up two little ones. The 17-month-old was in fair condition; he had pneumonia. But the other little girl, almost one month old, was in very bad shape. It was a hard day… so many were.”

If a child became ill during the night, a staff member would knock on S. Anne Darlene’s window above the nursery to wake her. She would then call the Army to safely transport the child to the hospital.

S. Anne Darlene Wojtowicz began her ministry with Catholic Relief Services in Vietnam in August 1974, caring for up to 86 babies and young children in the nursery.

At the beginning of the Sisters’ mission in Vietnam, the program was carefully organized: each baby was baptized, issued identification papers, and sent to their adoptive parents in the United States. But, as the North Vietnamese advanced toward Saigon, maintaining order became increasingly difficult, and the Sisters’ work grew more challenging.

In her letter to S. Delia, S. Anne Darlene recalled a visit with S. Kateri Maureen to the courthouse in Vinh Long: “… We didn’t plan on picking up any babies,” she wrote. “But they were losing their nurse – their only trained one – and asked if we could take some. Kateri and I looked at each other and just gulped. I already had 75 and was expecting more on Thursday, and then I said yes.”

S. Anne Darlene remembered the chaos vividly. “I’m really praying I have enough beds,” she wrote to S. Delia. “Seven are in the hospital, and I’m praying we keep about that many there. If they all come home, I’m going to have to start building beds.”

Being forced to leave Vietnam at the height of the crisis only strengthened her conviction that her work needed to continue in the war-torn country. She returned home to Pueblo, Colorado, in the first week of April, living with several Sisters of Charity in their “little house in Dog Patch.”

Yet she longed to return to the nursery as soon as possible. Described as a “halfway house” in a 1975 article by Don Donato titled Vietnam Orphans May Call Back Nun, it was “halfway between a family setting and an orphanage.” S. Anne Darlene had planned to stay for three years and told Donato that she was eager to return just two weeks after arriving back in the United States.

Although S. Anne Darlene was unable to return to Vietnam to complete her service before the war ended, she went on to serve in Yemen from late 1975 until 1977. After returning to the United States, she devoted more than 25 years to healthcare ministry. She first came to Texas in 1980, serving as a nurse-midwife at Su Clinica Familiar in Harlingen, and later co-founded Holy Family Services in Weslaco in 1983, creating a birth center to provide poor women a safe place to deliver their babies. She also ministered at Nuestra Clinica del Valle in Edcouch, Texas, a vital community health center in Hidalgo County. “We did not refuse anyone,” she recalled. “Those who didn’t have appointments, we saw them in between. We didn’t leave the office until we were finished.”

S. Anne Darlene is now retired and celebrated her 60th anniversary as a Sister of Charity in 2025. Decades later, her remarkable legacy – marked by courage, compassion, and selfless service, from the orphan crisis during the Vietnam War to decades of healthcare ministry – continues to inspire.

During the final days of the Vietnam War, the U.S. government began placing Vietnamese children on military transport planes for adoption in the United States.

S. Anne Darlene Wojtowicz assisted in organizing the children for evacuation during what became known as Operation Babylift, which ultimately brought more than 3,300 children out of Vietnam.

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