Operation New Life Operation New Life ( 3 April 1975 – 3 September 1975 ) was the U . S . military evacuation of about 110 , 000 Southeast Asia n refugees displaced by the Vietnam War out of South Vietnam . Assaults by Vietcong and the North Vietnamese Army defeated the South Vietnamese Army in 1975 . Saigon fell on April 30 of that year , ending a series of wars which had plagued that country , with one brief interruption , since 1940 . From 4 April to 3 September 1975 , Operation New Life and Operation Babylift , brought 111 , 919 refugees to the United States through Guam , with 93 , 987 of these refugees receiving asylum in the United States . Madame Vu Thai Ngai and Betty Tisdale ( Operation Babylift and Anloc Orphanage ) became honored guests at Camp Mineron . Airlifts from Saigon ' s Tan Son Nhat Airport unloaded at Andersen Air Force Base . Passengers were escorted to huge tent cities , where tents erected just hours before awaited them . Those who fled Vietnam by sea landed at the Naval Supply Station at Apra Harbor , Guam . First responders included personnel from USS " Hector " , the Naval Station and Camp Covington CB Base . Tasked with providing food and shelter , Naval Station Tug Base personnel improvised housing from abandoned warehouses of decommissioned Camp Minron with cots and supplies from the base emergency hurricane supplies , fed hundreds from plastic trash cans full of fish and rice from the base galley . The Hector also provided hot meals from her own stores and galley . Outside showers were made from a circle of metal lockers and fire hoses with sprinkler heads . The CB ' s set up Vietnam - style steel drum toilets , which were immediately overwhelmed . Lockheed C - 141 Starlifter and Lockheed C - 130 Hercules aircraft unloaded and personnel processed at NAS Agana , Brewer Field . Tents were set up at Army - run Camp Orote on an abandoned airstrip . At its peak it held a population of 39 , 331 . More than 90 , 000 refugees were processed there just weeks before Typhoon Pamela slammed ashore with winds in excess of 145 knots . The camp at Orote Point ( called Camp Rainbow ) was staffed by units from the U . S . 25th Infantry Division from Schofield Barracks , Hawaii ; initially under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Will H . Horn ( April – May ) , and later of Colonel Jack O ' Donohue ( June – September ) . The command consisted of two infantry battalions , elements of the 25th Supply and Transport Battalion , a field hospital from San Antonio , Texas , and intelligence teams . The total U . S . Army contingent consisted of approximately 2 , 000 soldiers . American C - 141s continued shuttling refugees into Guam throughout May , especially from Subic Bay . Some 40 % of those transiting Guam were from Vietnam ' s ethnic Chinese population . Other groups disproportionately represented were the South Vietnamese military and civil service , many of whom would have faced imprisonment and reeducation camp s had they remained . Those made suspect by their international education also departed — by one count , Vietnam lost two - thirds of its physicians in less than a month . The Canadian government established a presence on Guam , announcing it too would accept refugees . English - speaking immigrants to Canada were upsetting a political balance between Quebec and its English - speaking provinces ; because Vietnam ' s colonial language had been French , the Canadian government sought , found and accepted French - speaking , professionally educated refugees . Assistance to Operation New Life was provided by the volunteer organization Australian Society for Intercountry Aid ( A . S . I . A . ) ; its , medical director , John Whitehall , operated a clinic in Guam ' s Tokyu Hotel for most of the month of May 1975 . A dozen volunteer A . S . I . A . nurses served at Orote Point under U . S . Military command . The A . S . I . A . contribution arose from a request made in Saigon in April 1975 by Irons of USAID to Australian ex - Army officer Michael Darby for the recruitment of Australian medical volunteers to assist with the expected rush of refugees . During the second phase of the operation , 1 , 546 " politically sensitive " refugees were kept under guard in a separate part of camp . All were former Viet Cong caught up in the mass migration ; they returned to Vietnam on the " M / V Thung Tin One " at their own request . These former Viet Cong were offloaded onto life rafts by U . S . Navy personnel a short distance off the coast and instructed to paddle back to Vietnam . They did so , too , after first stripping off their U . S . - issued clothing and jettisoning relief supplies that had been provided by the United States .