Week 4 Flag: “Dust of Life”, created by Hilton Kam, Julian Mel Leus, Julian Demegillo, and Seira Narita

This piece was inspired by “Operation Babylift,” an event that took place in South Vietnam in 1975. Over three thousand Vietnamese babies were separated from their homeland for fear that the communist North Vietnamese would kill them, when in reality the operation was to covertly transport Vietnamese intelligence assets out of the country and to funnel more money into the U.S. war effort. This flag is inspired by the South Vietnamese flag and uses the image of a star in a circle to symbolize the mixed race babies of Vietnamese women and American soldiers that left their families behind. The stork is commonly used to represent the transportation of babies, and in this case, is a symbol for the babies evacuated out of Vietnam during Operation Babylift. Our group wanted to make this art specifically for the babies of “Operation Babylift” so that they can have a flag that unifies their experience.

This image was designed using Adobe Illustrator with reference images of the South Vietnamese flag and a piece from a United States military logo (Air Force Roundel).