Babylift Redux Apr. 5, 2005 - Lake Leman, Switzerland - Hai Bovey was the last orphaned baby to leave Vietnam in April 1975 as part of a program called 'Operation Babylift.' Babylift was carried out by a group of volunteers, armed-forces personnel, adoption-service workers, nurses and airplane personnel in South Vietnam throughout April. Their mission had a short window of time, and their cargo was of the most fragile nature--young children and babies orphaned during the war. With the United States rapidly withdrawing from the country and North Vietnamese troops moving toward Saigon, an extraordinary amount of pressure mounted to get these children safely evacuated.

Bovey was born in the Mekong Delta on Jan. 16, 1975, to unknown Vietnamese parents. He was not quite three months old when he left Vietnam and was one of more than 3,000 Vietnamese orphans airlifted out of the country on a Babylift plane.

Bovey, now 30 years old, stands contemplatively on a dock and looks out over Lake Leman, near Geneva. This year, he celebrated his first wedding anniversary and the birth of his daughter, Xuan. But this year also marks another anniversary for Bovey; it's been three decades since he left his native country and arrived in his adoptive country of Switzerland. He struggles to integrate his Swiss upbringing with his Vietnamese roots, and his quest for understanding has prompted him to begin a book that will explore his unique history. Picture (c) KHANH RENAUD/Visual/ZUMA Press