The most effective leaders lead by example rather than by dictation. I have always tried to set an example by my own works. I also believe that open communication is a key to success in a group dynamic.
As part of my series about “authors who are making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ross Meador.
In 1974, Ross Meador traveled alone to Saigon to open an office for an American charity organization called Friends of Children of Viet Nam. He was 19 years old and had not yet started college.
As the youngest director of a foreign voluntary agency operating in Viet Nam, he traveled throughout the country, carrying supplies to various orphanages and other social welfare institutions. His organization opened and operated childcare facilities and processed adoptions of orphaned children. Working with 26-year-old Cherie Clark and her younger sister Sue, in less than a year they built one of the largest and most effective child welfare organizations in the country.
In 1975, he was involved in the evacuation of Vietnamese war orphans to the West in the closing days of the American war there. His organization placed 57 adoptees on the first orphan evacuation flight sponsored by Ed Daly and World Airways, which motivated the US Government to launch the evacuation effort known as Operation Bablift. He was evacuated from Viet Nam to San Francisco on one of the Babylift flights, but returned to Viet Nam a few days later. He was evacuated a second time on April 30, 1975, from the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon and flown to the USS Midway in the South China Sea.
His story has been described in seven books including Honorable Exit — How a Few Brave Americans Risked All to Save our Vietnamese Allies at the End of the Vietnam War by Thurston Clarke, magazines including People Magazine, television programs including It’s a Miracle, radio programs including Voice of America, The World, and Talk of the Nation and various print and broadcast news stories. His oral history is featured in the Oakland Museum ‘s California during the Vietnam Era. His photograph of the evacuation of Saigon is included in permanent collection of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum
In 2003, Friends of Children of Vietnam was nominated by Congressman Tom Tancredo for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, our nations highest civilian award. In 2005, the group was nominated for a second time by Senator Diane Feinstein
In 2005, Meador was awarded the Heather Constance Noone Memorial Award for “Extraordinary Actions on Behalf of the Vietnam Babylift.
In the years following the evacuation from Vietnam, he worked with orphans and international adoption in Seoul, Korea and Kolcata (Calcutta), India. In 1986, he graduated from UC Berkeley Law and commenced an international legal career with residences in San Francisco, Korea, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
Because my book is a memoir, I talk a lot about my early years in the first chapters. I grew up in Southern California in a comfortable but sheltered home. My parents were psychologists and part of the new psychology that became popular in the 1960s. Other than exposure to Mexico, I had no international experience at all. I don’t think I even ate at a Chinese restaurant until I was in high school. My life changed when I went to a summer school abroad program in India before my senior year in high school. I was stunned by what I saw there — I never imagined that life could be so different. I decided that I must travel around the world before going to college. As I made my plans, I heard about a group working with orphans in Vietnam. After hearing for years about the terrible things American did in Vietnam, the ideal of going there to help was very appealing.
When you were younger, was there a book that you read that inspired you to take action or changed your life? Can you share a story about that?
I was influenced by books about travel. Wanderings by Herman Hesse and The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux come to mind. I was less motivated by books than my actual travel experiences, however.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
On one of my first hitchhiking trips, my driver stopped at a small market in the middle of nowhere. I went inside and shoplifted some luncheon meat for my dinner. When I returned to the car, I saw that the driver had taken off with my backpack and all of my belongings. Karma. I vowed never to steal again.
Can you describe how you aim to make a significant social impact with your book?
The Vietnam Babylift remains one of the largest international adoption events in history and indeed one of the greatest humanitarian efforts of the 20th century, but not without controversy. Misunderstandings regarding the origin of the children and the reasons for the evacuation have clouded the events and obfuscated its place in history. My book, Carried Away, tells the true story of the people and motivations behind the evacuation and the children who were rescued through their efforts. It also tells the story of my evacuation from the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon on April 30, 1975. As the true story is told, the children and their rescue will find their proper place in history.
Can you share with us the most interesting story that you shared in your book?
The book tells the story of the origin of Operation Babylift and the evacuation from the roof of the US Embassy on April 29, 1975. Babylift originated when we realized that we had to leave the country with the hundreds of orphans in our care. The INS agreed to waive visa requirements for the children, but we were on our own for transport. We spoke with every airline and cargo carrier in the country to try to arrange a flight. Eventually we found Ed Daly of World Airways who agreed to take our kids. The first flight was on April 2, 1975, carrying 57 of our older kids. I knew all the kids well and placed them on the plane myself. In spite of government efforts to block the flight, including cutting off the runway lights at the moment of takeoff, the children arrived safely in the US. The next day, President Ford announced that the US government would take over the evacuation of the remaining orphans.
What was the “aha moment” or series of events that made you decide to bring your message to the greater world? Can you share a story about that?
There are seven books currently available that tell parts of my story, but none that tell all of it. With the encouragement of the other authors, I finally set out to tell the story as I knew it. Part of my goal is to give the adopted children their proper place in history.
Without sharing specific names, can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
We saved the lives of hundreds of children. In early April of 2025, I spent two weeks traveling around Vietnam with 50 of the adoptees. They are universally grateful for what we did for them.
One interesting story is about an adoptee that I met at a reunion event in 2003, He had been given one piece of paper by his adoptive parents as their only information about where he came from. He had been holding on to this paper for twenty-eight years.
Can you look at it and see if you can figure out where I came from?
My heart broke for him. Of course I said yes, but I could not imagine that I could be of any help. He pulled the paper out of his pocket, unfolded it, and handed it to me. I looked at it, immediately drawn to the photo of a small boy who seemed to be sticking his finger in his ear. I looked at him, looked back at the photo, and then said to him, “I took that picture.” His jaw dropped. “Yes, I remember you. I have other pictures of you too. I even have one where you are sitting on my lap.” We both teared up, immediately bonded, and have been friends ever since. We even went to Viet Nam together and visited the old FCVN facility where the pictures were taken.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
Our group was nominated by Senator Diane Feinstein for the Presidential Medal of Freedom. However, the story of Operation Babylift is rarely told these days. I would like it to become part of history and for Americans to be proud of one good thing that we did in Vietnam.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
The most effective leaders lead by example rather than by dictation. I have always tried to set an example by my own works. I also believe that open communication is a key to success in a group dynamic.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
I grew up during the Viet Nam war years, and was profoundly aware of the horrible tragedy being inflicted upon the Vietnamese people. The plight of the war orphans was especially compelling and I felt driven to help.
I learned of a group called Friends of Children of Vietnam that was dedicated to helping the orphans. I was 19 years old and had no money or resources. I hitchhiked from my home in San Diego to the organization’s office in Denver. There I learned that the group had no office in Vietnam, but wanted to start one. All they had, however, was $500 and a one-way ticket to Saigon. My dream was coming true.
I arrived in Vietnam in early 1974. What I lacked in experience, I made up for in passion and enthusiasm. I visited orphanages whenever I could and where ever they may be located. The conditions I found were deplorable — filth, disease, starvation. I took pictures and wrote stories about what I found, and stirred the hearts of some generous Americans. A few donations trickled in, enough to rent a house big enough to take in some of the orphans from the overcrowded orphanages. Our international adoption program was born.
Soon after renting our first house, I was joined by Cherie Clark and her family. Cherie was a nurse with a deep commitment to helping the Vietnamese people. She immediately took charge and we began to expand. Within a few months, we had over 100 children in our care and we completed the first of our international adoptions. I was lucky enough to escort many of the children on flights back to the US and to say to anxious parents in the airport lounge, “Here’s your son!”
By the end of 1974, our operation was in full swing. We opened several more childcare facilities and regularly sent adoptees on the twice-weekly Pan Am flights to Honolulu and beyond. Little did we know that the end was very near.
In December 1974, the US Congress cut off military aid to South Vietnam. Nevertheless, conventional wisdom was that the country could hang on for at least another year. By February, however, the North Vietnamese succeeded in taking control of large areas of the South, and we began to realize that the inevitable was upon us. At that point we had hundreds of children in our physical and legal custody. Giving them back to the orphanages or abandoning them to fend for themselves was never an option. If we had to leave, our kids were coming too. That was the birth of Operation Babylift.
The INS agreed to waive visa requirements for the children, but we were on our own for transport. We spoke with every airline and cargo carrier in the country to try to arrange a flight. Eventually we found Ed Daly of World Airways who agreed to take our kids. The first flight was on April 2, 1975, carrying 57 of our older kids. I knew all the kids well and placed them on the plane myself. In spite of government efforts to block the flight, including cutting off the runway lights at the moment of takeoff, the children arrived safely in the US.
By April 3, the world press was buzzing about Friends of Children of Vietnam and the World Airways flight. Pressure mounted in Washington. President Ford then stepped up and agreed to fund flights for the remaining children.
The first government-funded flight ended in disaster. As the C5A plane reached altitude, the rear doors blew off. The plane crashed in a rice field, killing about half of the children aboard. I was at the airport when it happened and saw the smoke rise from the sky.
The military flights resumed a couple of days later on smaller cargo planes, with the babies placed in cardboard boxes on the floor. I joined one of the flights, which landed first at a US airbase in the Philippines and then continued on to San Francisco the next day in traditional passenger aircraft. I stayed just a day in California before flying back to Saigon to continue helping with the evacuation.
Back in Vietnam, chaos reigned. The nuns who ran the jungle orphanages were panicked. Many loaded all of their children on a bus and brought them to us. We closed our countryside facility after the World Airways flight, so literally hundreds of children were squeezed into our Saigon facility. The evacuation flights continued until April 26, when the last of our children were flown out, together with the last of our American staff.
I stayed behind to continue to help. Two days later, April 28, the airport was bombed and closed to fixed-wing flights. The next morning, out house was attacked as the army from the North took over the city. I fled to the Embassy and stayed there until the early morning of April 30, when I was one of the last American civilians to be lifted from the roof of the Embassy and flown to a waiting aircraft carrier in the South China Sea.
My perspective on the work we did has changed as I have watched the children grow into adults. At the time of their adoption, many of the adults involved act as if the children’s lives begin the day they get off the plane in the US. Most of the adoptees, however, retain a powerful connection to Vietnam and to their birth families, whether or not they ever get to meet them. This realization complicates the story. It is not only about the joy of finding a new family; it is also about the sadness of loosing one. I have no regrets; the orphanages were terrible places for a child to grow up and the adopting families were generally wonderful. But it is hard to be orphaned, and for many of the kids, being adopted doesn’t completely eliminate the longing for their first mother.
I wish that someone had told me that the rear door of the C5A that carried hundreds of orphans was not closed properly and that it would explode in flight.
I wish that someone had told me that when I left my house on April 29, that I would never return.
I wish that someone had told me that we needed to keep better records of where the children came from.
I wish someone had told me to require a signed release for every child in our custody.
I wish someone had told me that mothers would try to smuggle their children onto the Babylift flights and then try to reclaim them in the US.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you are right.” Henry Ford
I have always believed in myself and had a positive attitude; never let fear, especially fear of failure, get in the way.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I would like to meet David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, to talk about a major motion picture telling the story of Operation Babylift.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Facebook.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
Social Impact Authors: How & Why Author Ross Meador Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.