WEATHERFORD, Texas (BP) — The end of the Vietnam War, recognized on April 30, marked the end of a chapter for John Cope. But it also started another.

An 18-month tour with the Air Force in the country ended in 1971. During his time there, though, Cope had grown fond of the South Vietnamese people.

“They had given so much to me,” he told Baptist Press. “We had very good relationships with them. Many were refugees from the communists and had an entirely different mindset than the North Vietnamese. I just fell in love with them and wanted to give back.”

Cope had completed his military service, so if he were going to return from the U.S., it would be on his dime.

The 23-year-old did just that, going to an orphanage he had read about in the military newspaper “Stars and Stripes.”

Camranh City Christian Orphanage was a Baptist-related ministry located near some American military bases. Cope spoke no Vietnamese, but it didn’t matter as he dove into any and every needed chore. That included working in the fields to grow corn and manioc. He fed pigs. He drove kids in a Volkswagen van to church, the doctor, wherever they were needed. He learned to make fried apple fritters from military-issued dehydrated apples.

Cope also grew close to Southern Baptist missionaries Jim and Margaret Gayle, who worked at the orphanage. Cope became a frequent visitor at their home and practically a fourth son.

One child in particular attached himself to Cope. His name was Thang, and he had been in the home since he was 4.

After 14 months in Camranh, Cope needed to return to the U.S. to help with his father, who was experiencing medical issues.

“John had to say goodbye to the orphans and return to the States,” Margaret Gayle would later write in an article for Challenger Magazine. “His departure left a vacant place in the lives and hearts of all the children. The ties of love had grown deep, and the children missed him. “

A hopeful goodbye

Cope told Baptist Press that even in February 1975, when he left, he expected to return to Vietnam for a third time. Very soon, though, the situation began to deteriorate. The U.S. State Department ordered Americans to leave the country in April, culminating with a large-scale evacuation on April 29-30 as North Vietnamese troops entered Saigon.

“I thought I might never see the kids again,” Cope said.

The war’s end also brought attention to the thousands of orphans left in its wake. Operation Babylift ensued, bringing more than 3,000 children to Western nations, mainly the United States.

Southern Baptist missionaries also worked to evacuate some 500 Baptist employees and their families. However, Baptist Press reported May 14, 1975, that the U.S. Embassy was unable to deliver on that promise as the city fell to the Viet Cong more quickly than anticipated.

However, 82 children and 15 adults from the orphanage in Camranh made their way to New York City before traveling to Fort Chaffee, Ark., for processing.

“I had heard about the orphan flights,” said Cope. “But there was so much chaos. It was hard to find out what was going on.”

He had only a radio, but listened daily and maintained contact with the Gayles, now in Texas on furlough.

Jim Gayle not only knew the Camranh kids personally and could help with their arrival, but he had also grown up at Buckner Baptist Children’s Home in Dallas. He contacted President R.C. Campbell and asked if the home could take in the group. A recently-renovated dorm would soon be their home.

First, though, there was the matter of a reunion.

Escape to America

His students know him as Mr. Cope, whose enthusiasm and dedication to sixth-grade science at Hall Middle School in Weatherford, Texas, made him a Teacher of the Year candidate this spring. The school recently highlighted the daily excitement and energy he brings to “turning complex science topics into hands-on learning adventures.”

He goes by Thang, but also Ty. Even though he was only 4 at the time, he remembers his mother’s face as she left him at the Camranh City Christian Orphanage. He remembers bonding with John, the American who came to live with them all. He remembers the day he looked outside and everyone was hugging John because he had to leave.

“I was young, so it was hard to understand what all was going on,” he told BP.

Months later came a journey. It began on a bus with the other children going through various checkpoints. Days at sea on a rickety boat with about 100 adults and kids followed.

“People were getting sick. About three days in, the boat broke down,” he said. “A freighter ship came by and agreed to tow us. But it was going too fast and the adults were afraid it would drag us under and cut the line. So, we were adrift again until some fishermen — I believe they were Chinese — came upon us and helped us get to some boats that were with the Singapore military.”

A long plane ride eventually came, then another to Arkansas.

New family

“As soon as I heard there was an orphan group from Camranh at Fort Chaffee, I knew it had to be them,” said John.

He contacted the Gayles to make sure. Then, he jumped in his Dodge pickup and headed in that direction.

About an hour later he was at Fort Chaffee and looking for Jim Gayle, who was helping with the processing and serving as a translator. The question John had been waiting for came quickly.

“You ready to see the kids?” Gayle asked.

They had just loaded onto a bus to go to another part of the fort for immunization shots. But several saw John as he approached. Before the beleaguered bus driver knew it, about 70 boys and girls poured back out to run to him.

Thang somehow made it to him in the mob and even grabbed his pocket, but John didn’t know it until everyone was back on the bus, he told BP.

“He was so small,” John said. “The chaos had finally kind of settled down.”

Wanting to help in the resettlement process, John quit his job in Arkansas and moved to Dallas, where he became a cook in the Buckner kitchen. Alongside other Vietnamese nationals who had previously worked at the orphanage and made the journey, they blended American meals with those more familiar to the children.

They stayed at Buckner for two years. Many of the older children chose to remain until they graduated from high school. Younger ones were adopted by American families.

From the start, John wanted to adopt Thang. Policy related to his being single, however, prevented it. Over time, Buckner trustees and Oklahoma social workers allowed the adoption to proceed, and John and Thang moved into a house just down the road from John’s parents in Oklahoma.

John’s mother, Billie, became a mother figure for Thang, who also came to adore his new grandpa, JM Cope, who had served with the Army in World War II in Japan and was wounded in liberating the Philippines. Incidentally, JM’s father and Thang’s great-grandfather, Jones Cope, served in the Army in France in World War I.

New life

American sentiment toward the Vietnam War and even refugees remained… complex during Thang’s growing-up years. He endured comments, but more so remembers the protection given by most of the people in his town, his family and their church, First Baptist in Frederick.

“I was the only Asian person around,” he said. “But the town really embraced me as did our church. I learned to be an Okie.”

Thang worked hard in school and became the first member of the Cope family to go to college, earning a full ride to Oklahoma State University. His Facebook posts are a constant reminder of his pride in being a cowboy.

Departing from his hometown for college became easier for Thang when John met and married Anna. A year later, the couple had the first of two daughters, Thang’s new siblings.

Thang felt a call to ministry, and after graduating from OSU went on to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS). That led to a career in children and youth ministry. He planted churches in Richmond, Va., through the state convention and Home (now North American) Mission Board. A return to Texas brought 14 years as collegiate pastor at First Baptist in College Station.

The last 14 years — three of them at Hall Middle — brought a second career as an educator.

“With a passion for discovery and a love for teaching, Mr. Cope inspires curiosity in his students and encourages them to ask questions, think critically, and explore the world around them,” the school shared last month. “His classroom is a place where every student feels empowered to learn and grow! Thank you, Mr. Cope, for all that you do to spark a love of science in our students.”

The word “best” appears frequently in the comments on the post.

He goes by other names. Thang and his wife, Kayla, will celebrate 34 years of marriage in May. They have two daughters and two grandchildren, who know her as Lolly and him as Pop Pop.

Thang, a member of Christ Chapel Church, claims Jeremiah 29:11 as his life verse.

“It’s a reminder of God’s grace, providence and plan for my life,” he said. “That plan is to prosper you and not to harm you. It’s been my guiding verse through life once I learned who Christ was and His love for me.”

A return

In 2010, John and Thang Cope, along with their families, returned to Vietnam for the first time. They were joined by others from Camranh. The Texas Baptist Standard and Dallas Morning News reported on the trip.

“This is pretty amazing. I never thought I would be back,” Thang says in a video of the journey.

“It’s really difficult to put into words … to really be able to explain the emotions,” said Jim Gayle in the video, four years before he would die from cancer.

Thang also met his biological father and mother, now with families of their own. Margaret Gayle wrote of their reunion.

“Speaking through an interpreter, the mother’s repressed grief poured out as she gently pulled a worn child’s sweater from a basket and pressed it into Thang’s hands. It was the only vestige she had saved of the small child she had surrendered to the orphanage 35 years earlier. She explained that on the day she left Thang at the orphanage, he was cold, but she had to save something to remember him by! Seeing the expression in his mother’s eyes, Thang — after a lifetime of mixed emotions — now understood the depth of love that had caused his mother to give him up at age 4.”

As one would imagine, emotions ran high throughout the trip. John Cope, who is still a member of First Baptist Frederick but attends Primera Bautista Iglesia with Anna, told BP it reaffirmed what he learned so long ago.

“I had never been anywhere before I shipped off to Vietnam. The Lord kept me safe while there, but also gave me great relationships with the people,” he said. “I realized that it doesn’t make any difference where you go. People are pretty much the same. They have needs and wants.

“We’ve all been forgiven. Treat people right, and they’ll treat you right.”

Like so many others, Thang can’t help but think back on the anniversary.

“I appreciate what the Lord has done in my life, saving me and giving me a family. I can’t say enough about America’s interest in helping a war-torn country and appreciate so much the men and women who served and sacrificed so much.

“But ultimately, I give thanks to the Lord for redeeming my life and saving it, for having a plan and using it.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Scott Barkley is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press.)