The first refugees out of Saigon — 54 Vietnamese orphans — arrived at Yokota AB early Thursday after a dash to freedom from an increasingly nervous South Vietnamese capital. This article first appeared in the Stars and Stripes Pacific edition, April 4, 1975. It is republished unedited in its original form.

From the Stars and Stripes archives: Mary Fisher, wife of a Seventh Day Adventist Church minister, holds an infant as she is surrounded by reporters aboard the World Airways plane that landed at Yokoto Air Base, April 3, 1975. 

From the Stars and Stripes archives: Under cover of night, cherry blossom trees lining the moat surrounding Hirosaki Castle in northern Japan lend a warm glow in March 2000.

From the Stars and Stripes archives: The boredom of youth, even in a big city, is brought home by this boy sitting on a curb in East London, May 1976.

From the Stars and Stripes archives: Guards like this one killed at least 133 people trying to flee to the West during the Berlin Wall’s existence from 1961 to 1989.

From the Stars and Stripes archives: A boy and his dad join nearly 250,000 other spectators in enjoying the precision flying demonstrated at an international air show marking the 10th anniversary of NATO in Bitburg, Germany, April 1959.

From the Stars and Stripes archives: Teenage tennis star Venus Williams signs autographs for the students of Patch High School, Stuggart, Germany on Oct. 7, 1997.

Judy Haag of Greendale, Wis., joined the American Red Cross as a Clubmobile girl and was assigned to the unit at Ascom Area Command headquarters in Korea. Since November, Judy like the 50 other Red Cross Clubmobile girls, has traveled thousands of miles by Army truck, helicopter and light plane.

From the Stars and Stripes archives: Judy Haag, one of some 50 Red Cross women operating the organization’s Clubmobiles across South Korea, hands out donuts to a service member in April 1959.

From the Stars and Stripes archives: During a visit to the U.S. Food and Agriculture Exhibition at Amsterdam’s new RAI building, Lady Bird Johnson tries out what appears to be a very comfortable chair as her husband, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, awaits his turn on Nov. 8, 1963.