(NEXSTAR) — When your dad is a professional photographer who’s worked for newspapers and National Geographic, you can count on thousands of life’s moments being captured on film.
“He built a darkroom in his basement, so he’s always had us in there helping him develop his films,” said John Cupp.
That explains why John has no shortage of pictures from his upbringing. His photojournalist dad, David Cupp, was there to document it all — even the moment John stepped off an airplane from Vietnam. An orphan, no more.
“And then Beth, they adopted too. She came later,” John said pointing to a picture of his sister in a newspaper.
Thousands of babies and young children were evacuated from the war zone in the final days of the Vietnam War. This year marks 50 years since what was called “Operation Babylift” — the massive effort to find homes and families for 3,000 Vietnamese orphans.
John was born in Vietnam. He never knew his birth father, who was likely an American GI, or his Vietnamese mother. According to the story he’s always been told, he was abandoned along the side of a road with a group of children somewhere in Vietnam. “Me and I think two other kids that were a little older,” he said.
While out on patrol, some American soldiers happened upon the group. “They took us because we were abandoned and took us to a nun that they knew had an orphanage. And from there, the nun took us to the orphanage.”
Had they not found him, John says the chances of him finding a home and family in Vietnam weren’t great.
“If my parents didn’t adopt me, I probably wouldn’t be here today.”
During and after the Vietnam War, an estimated 100,000 so-called Amerasian children were born — kids of American soldiers and Vietnamese mothers. Many were left behind when U.S. troops withdrew, and rejected in their home country because they didn’t look like everyone else.
“They had more trouble getting adopted and getting fed first,” John said. “The orphanage was already limited on food, so if there was any food left, rice water, you know, then we were given, we were the last stages of actually being given food.”
Thankfully John wouldn’t be in the orphanage for long. When David Cupp was on assignment in 1972 photographing orphans in Vietnam, he decided one of them belonged back home in Denver with his family.
“They really just said, hey, we’ll take one of the babies that’s, you know, in survival mode right now,” John said.
Inspired by the story of the American soldiers who found him, John went on to join the Army himself, where he served for more than 20 years. “So I just recently retired like two years ago,” he said.
He was also inspired by his father, who died a couple of years ago. But David Cupp’s photographs remain — telling the story of a loving family, brought together by the Vietnam War.
“Yeah, I was a lucky kid,” John said.
Thousands of babies and young children were evacuated from the war zone in the final days of the Vietnam war. This year marks 50 years since what was called Operation Babylift – the massive effort to find homes and families for three thousand Vietnamese orphans.