I had the best birthday present this year after receiving an unexpected message on Facebook from a film director Duc Nguyen. He was looking for the baby Chieu Anh who was born at sea on the Truong Xuan. Howard Jones from the RAF 28 Squadron was looking to find the baby as he had some photos that he has taken to share.
I had confirmed that it was truly me and we had a wonderful two hour Zoom chat. I had no idea of the people and details involved in the helicopter rescue. Pete Jones was the winch operator who sent Tim Bailey to pick me up. I was the first baby rescue and he held onto me with both hands. For later rescues, they developed a baby carrier - similar to a taco. Howard Jones took this photo from the second helicopter.
If you look below the helicopter and see the white dot. It’s the helmet belonging to Tim Bailey. The rescue mission was on May 4th - by then, I was a sorry sight. I had a broken collarbone, shoulder blades bent into “U” like shapes as someone who held me during the transfer from the Truong Xuan to the Clara Maersk was scared to drop me. My eyes were infected shut and I had no nourishment for almost two days. My mother and my two year old brother was taken as well as a woman with a ruptured appendix. My brother was incorrectly quoted as a second newborn baby in a UK paper the next day.
Howard was kind enough to share several more photos. It made me realize how many different strangers were a part of making sure I would stay alive. So many things could have gone wrong when I was born on a sinking ship, being able to hang on as we transferred to the Clara Maersk which took an extra 3 hours to find us as the coordinates in the SOS were incorrect. A RAF nimrod surveillance aircraft relayed the location of the Clara Maersk to the two helicopters who had to make sure they had enough fuel.
This makes me understand why I haven’t been able to finish my book. Just reading several of my posts here - you can see how many times I’ve started and added to the book. However, I’ve always felt that it wasn’t ready yet - something was missing and frankly, I don’t have the ending yet!
*Photo taken by Howard Jones on May 4th, 1975.
