Four decades later, a survivor linked to the 1975 Operation Babylift seeks her cultural truth.
Saved fromVietnam, performer uncovers surprise origin, desire to learnmore
SAN JOSE — When Lara Price, a soulful, blues singer, tries to explain her devotion to music, she drifts back to age 5 when inner rhythms and the urge to dance “just came out of my bones.”
Now, lit by the 40th anniversary of arriving in America from Vietnam as an infant orphan, Price is again surrendering to inner emotions: “It is finally time to find out who I really am” — no matter the possible anguish.
“For years I have been afraid of looking into my origins,” said Price, a well- known member of the Bay Area music scene. “But as more people like me have done DNA tests and found out who they really were, I have become inspired. Now, I’m not so scared about it anymore.”
Price is referring to April 1975, when the Vietnam War was ending badly and the U. S. was pulling out. In the midst of enormous, deadly chaos was a belief that unknown thousands of Amerasian babies — fathered by U. S.
soldiers — would be left behind and possibly slaughtered by the triumphant government of North Vietnam.
Quickly, Operation Babylift was developed, involving planned flights out of Vietnam packed with endangered babies as cargo. A stirring exhibit about the Airlift that brought 2,700 children to America and another 1,300 to Canada, Europe and Australia opened in April at the Presidio in San Francisco.
But the very first Babylift flight of a C- 5A Galaxy was struck by tragedy. An explosion in the rear fuselage caused the plane to crash- land in a rice paddy, break apart and burst into flames, killing 154 people on board, including 78 of the youngsters.
Ababy girl — nicknamed Princess — was said to be on that fateful plane flight and survived the terrible crash. In a few weeks, that same infant was reportedly picked up for adoption by Lorretta and Mike Price, a couple from Riverside. The Prices and their two young sons embraced the swaddling package, named her Lara and took her home as a welcomed little sister and only daughter.
“She had scabies, parasites and was very underweight,” recalled Lorretta of the infant who was judged by a doctor to be about a month old. “I ended up with a document that said she was my daughter, born in Vietnam, where I had never been.”
For her part, Lara Price who now lives in Santa Cruz, was always happy believing she was that lucky Amerasian infant who survived the terrible Babylift plane crash. Life with her adoption family was lovingly captured in a large photo/ document album going back to that first day they picked up the Vietnamese infant.
But a few years ago, many Southeast Asian “orphans” started to search for more information, including Price. She even did a pilgrimage to Vietnam where she “wept at the crash site because it was part of my history.”
In the cultural hunt, Price found a nun in St. Louis who had worked the orphan detail. The sister had shocking news: Lara was not on that doomed plane.
“That was mind- bending,” said Price, shaken by the revelation, “to find out this major belief I always had was not true.”
Growing more hungry for details, in mid- April she got involved with the Presidio exhibition, “Operation Babylift: Perspectives and Legacies.” Through that, she met Babylift survivors, many of whom were bravely using DNA tests to discover more about their ethnic origins. Price finally decided to find out if she is Cambodian or Vietnamese and if she is half- American — or not.
All the fresh excitement led her to invite her mom to the opening night of the Presidio show.
“It was an education for me,” said Lorretta of the exhibit. “Back then, I was just a young mother and I didn’t much understand the controversies,” such as the number of children — because of sketchy wartime documentation — who were flown away despite not being orphans or Amerasian.
Somehow, the family didn’t know what they had in the way of a tiny, blues singer until a sixth- grade talent show when mom was “shocked to hear that voice come out of her. To this day, people see her come out on stage, not expecting her to sound like a big, black woman — but she does.”
Price also embraced keyboards, saxophone, guitar and drums along with that melodic growl of a singing voice.
For years she “slung diamonds” by day in posh retail jewelry stores and collected gigs by night, in Salt Lake City and then the Bay Area. Along the way, she married the owner of the Poor House Bistro, a live music haven in downtown San Jose, and developed into a popular, full- time chanteuse.
The night of the Presidio exhibition was a high point for Lara and her mom. But after dinner at the famed Cliff House later that night, another kind of darkness descended. When they returned to Price’s car, “It was sickening to see there had been a theft,” said Lorretta of an obvious smash- and- grab. The precious baby book, the sole, comprehensive visual record of the life Price did actually experience — was gone. “We both went all quiet ... .” Even the young cop at the scene was so moved he walked nearby streets, hoping the thieves had ditched the album. No such luck.
Still, Price has found ways to feel upbeat. She is excitedly finishing work on her sixth album at Grease Land. Best of all, in a few days she will submit to DNA testing and now feels confident about being able to handle any new, personal information that emerges.
“Finding things out might put a few cracks in my foundation for a while,” Price said, “but now I’m seeking a deep sense of peace out of the possible.”