How a nun, a plane and two local people changed a life

For most people, turning 50 is a milestone.

That is certainly the case for Kateri Yaley Garcia — but in a much more significant way than most.

“We wanted to adopt a girl,” said Arlene Yaley, Kateri’s mother, thinking back to the mid-1970s.

They already had three boys.

That isn’t an unusual situation for families, but in this case, going about it was anything but normal.

You see, Bill Yaley, Arlene’s husband, was a Vietnam War veteran. He was on the ground in Vietnam and witnessed the devastation of the war.

Yet he also knew he wanted a daughter, as well. They had been looking everywhere and in the process, they qualified to be adoptive parents of a Vietnam orphan.

If that could happen.

In those volatile times, it was a moving target for potential parents looking for children throughout Asia. They had no idea whether or not they would be able to find a daughter from Vietnam.

Operation Babylift

It was in April of 1975 when Operation Babylift was given its name. Its intention was the mass evacuation of children from South Vietnam to the United States and several other countries at the end of the Vietnam War.

It was April 3, 1975 — 50 years ago this month — when President Gerald Ford announced the U.S. government would begin airlifting orphan children out of Saigon. Though controversial, the operation proceeded through the U.S. Air Force and other agencies.

Incredibly, the first flight on a C-5A Galaxy departed from Son Nhut Airport on April 4, 1975. Twelve minutes after takeoff, there was what seemed to be an explosion and from there, the pilots wrestled to get control of the aircraft.

The plane hit a dike before breaking into four parts, some of which caught fire. According to officials, 175 people survived the crash and 138 people were killed, including 78 children.

Even with the tragedy, American military officials vowed to continue the flights — which they did.

Back in Los Altos, where the Yaleys lived at the time, they had no idea what was happening. But they did know they were going to, somehow, get one of the orphan girls coming from Vietnam.

The problem? They didn’t know what age of a girl was coming.

“I didn’t know whether to get diapers or Tampax,” said Arlene.

And then they learned they were indeed going to get a baby. One that was just five weeks old.

It was April 10, 1975 — 10 years to the day that Bill had left Vietnam.

They were told to go to a warehouse in the Presidio in San Francisco.

Only one person was allowed to go into the warehouse and Bill was the one.

He said he walked in, turned in the paperwork and was handed a five-week-old girl. It was that quick and before they could even think, in their car was a small child and they were headed home.

“It was divine intervention,” said Bill.

That quickly, they were back home and their new daughter, named Kateri, was suddenly the sister of three brothers, ages three, six and seven.

A major move

Just two years later, the family uprooted from the Bay Area and moved to Mariposa.

Kateri, whose is named after Sister Kateri Maureen Koverman, was a small child living in the Sierra Foothills who, just a couple of years earlier, was in an orphanage in Vietnam.

Of course, she doesn’t remember any of that and said her first memories are playing outside with her siblings in rural Mariposa.

As she grew older, Kateri went to a preschool which is on Darrah Road, not far from where she was when this interview was conducted. She went to Woodland Elementary, the middle school that was in the system at the time and eventually Mariposa County High School.

But did she ever just stop and think about how she was different or how it all unfolded?

“I don’t feel like I thought about race or looking different,” she said. “I didn’t feel any racism.”

Even as she grew older, she had opportunities to go to reunions with others who were adopted but “I did not want to go.”

She does keep in touch, somewhat, with some of the other people who were adopted, but that is mostly through social media and maybe a simple “happy birthday” wish.

There did come a time, though, when curiosity got the best of her and she decided to do a lineage test just to see. At 5 feet, 7 inches, she is tall for someone from Asian descent.

The test showed she was 99.8 percent Vietnamese and the question was answered.

During her time at MCHS, Kateri was a standout athlete including in basketball, volleyball and track.

That led to get a scholarship at the University of Montana in Missoula, where she only spent one year. Her personal situation made it so she moved back to this area and attended Merced College and then Sacramento State, where she continued her athletic pursuits.

Yet she knew all along she wanted to be involved with youth. She majored in child development. Though she struggled financially, especially having a child at a young age, Kateri was motivated to complete her education.

She did just that and landed a job in the Merced Unified School District teaching preschool children.

“I like the littles,” she said.

She spent 19 years teaching those little ones and just this year moved to the T-K level of teaching.

She still likes the little ones, obviously.

Through all of this, she has managed to stay in sports. She does that now with her husband, Joel, who also is involved in the Merced school system sports programs. They coach the mens volleyball team in the Merced school system and have been quite successful.

“Sports is very big,” said Kateri.

These days, her son, Brendon Yaley, is 30 and was in the Marines — just like his grandfather. Her daughter, Emerson, 20, attends Modesto College.

Lingering thoughts

So does Kateri ever think “what if” when it comes to how she so randomly came to live in Mariposa via the Presidio via an airplane from Vietnam?

“I feel like I belong here,” she said.

According to Bill, her father, they have attempted to try to figure out who her mother is, but “there is no way to track” down that information.

They have found a birth certificate, but it does not list the names of her father or mother. According to Bill, her mother left her when she was just one day old.

What they do know, though, is that Sister Kateri was instrumental in getting her namesake and thousands of others out of orphanages and onto planes so they could be adopted around the world.

In fact, she was going to be named Katherine, but it was changed to Kateri to honor the late nun who saved so many and was beloved all around the world.

In fact, they met Sister Kateri several times and it was really the only reunion the Kateri from Mariposa ever attended so she could meet her namesake.

“She was a dynamo,” said Bill of Sister Kateri. “We met her in person several times. We have that connection.”

Even Kateri noticed that aspect of the relationship.

“The last time, I felt like she gave us more attention,” she said of a reunion.

That’s not hard to believe given the fact one of the people whose life she saved is named after her.

Kateri did say that it was interesting to hear the various stories of people who were saved from the ravages of war. She was one of the youngest, at five weeks, to be removed from the orphanage and be united with her new family in San Francisco.

The quiet one

Kateri admits she has always been quite shy. She also admits to being emotional.

She was nicknamed “tears” at one point.

Even though she has certainly shied away from the reunions for the most part and focuses on her family and her career, it’s obvious her emotions do come to the surface.

Sitting on the couch at the home of her parents in rural Mariposa, tears flowed quickly when she was simply talking about her nickname.

Also when she was asked if she ever thinks about being one of just several thousand people who were given a new lease on life.

“It makes me feel special,” she said. “I am one of the lucky ones.”

Official reports indicate about 2,500 orphans were airlifted out of Vietnam during Operation Babylift.

That one of them landed in Mariposa and has gone on to be a successful athlete and teacher is nothing short of amazing. As far as anyone call tell, she’s the only orphan from Operation Babylift who was raised in Mariposa County.

Now, Kateri said her focus is “my family, my life.”

Teaching others

That focus is honed in on those “littles,” as she calls them.

Teaching is her life. Oh, and coaching.

Interestingly, in her coaching duties, she said she deals with high school students “and sometimes they act like T-Kers,” she laughed.

In her new role with the T-K students, Kateri said her focus is “hands-on learning. A lot of the kids don’t know how to communicate.”

She said a lot of that is because they are glued to electronic devices and in some cases “there is not a lot of parenting.”

Currently, she has 24 students and gets help from a full-time teacher’s aid. Her students are there the entire school day.

She had high praise for the Merced school system, saying they have been “very supportive.” She also noted the new growth that has been quite apparent in Merced.

Now at age 50, Kateri also sees students who are grown adults. In fact, they were at Little Ceasar’s not long ago and one of the people there was a former student.

Although Kateri said she doesn’t “feel like a typical 50 year old,” she can’t deny the fact that some of her first students are now out of school and parents themselves.

On occasion, some of them will come back and thank their first teacher.

“It makes me feel good,” she said.

That’s one of the reasons Kateri enjoys the young students.

“It’s their first experience,” she said. “I just like this age.”

Some, she said, show up a few years later and tell her they want to come back to her class.

She also deals with parents and said over the years, she has not had any real issues.

“They rely on us to teach their children,” she said.

Part of that is teaching those children they “have to be socially ready to learn.”

So how has schooling changed in almost 20 years in the profession?

“Socially and emotionally, no,” she said about the students.

But on the knowledge level, things have changed.

“I have kids reading right now,” she said.

The path to teaching

Kateri said ever since her years at MCHS, she knew she wanted to be a teacher.

She admits that going through high school “I did what I needed to do” and said she did receive a good education.

She also credits her parents.

“They have always been encouraging,” she said. “They are very supportive.”

She also credits both of them for “making me responsible,” something she tries to pass along to her young students.

As the daughter of a Marine, Kateria smiles when she said while growing up, some of her friends “were afraid of my dad,” saying he had that military mindset. But she knows Bill is a big softie and was putting on that military front.

“My husband is a lot like my dad,” she said, noting as a coaching duo, she is the sympathetic one while Joel is the typical coach.

But she also knows Joel, just like her father, is helping those players in ways nobody else could.

Joel grew up in Merced and said of his current coaching style: “I am exposing them to things they would never get.”

For instance, recently they took the team to see a movie. For one of the youth, it was the first time they had ever been in a movie theater.

And for both of them, their coaching style and lifestyle are compatible.

“It’s a good relationship,” said Kateri. “Life is good.”

And it’s incredible to think how that life may have been so different had it not been for a caring nun, an airplane and two dedicated parents who were determined to have a daughter.