A One-Man Relief Mission

Three weeks ago, as the fall of South Viet Nam grew imminent, Jim Mills, 39, a trucking contractor in Livermore, Calif., became increasingly uneasy. He had spent six months in Viet Nam in 1967 as an aircraft maintenance engineer and had made many Vietnamese friends. As he read and watched the before-the-fall reports out of Saigon, he recalls, "I said to my wife, 'What do you think?' She knows I'm a nut." Two days later Mills headed for Saigon, carrying $10,000 in cash. By last week his spontaneous, one-man relief mission had whisked 110 Vietnamese out of harm's way.

He began right at the San Francisco airport. There he encountered two Vietnamese students who pressed on him the names of 20 relatives trying to get out of the homeland. Aboard a plane from Hong Kong to Saigon, his seatmate was a Mrs. Xuan, who was attempting to get out some of her own Vietnamese relatives. She and Mills joined forces, and in a frantic two days in Saigon they rounded up 16 of her kin as well as the 20 relatives of the two students from San Francisco and five of Mills' old friends. He also took in tow a stray missionary and a student. By offering to be their sponsor, and talking persuasively to both U.S. and South Vietnamese officials. Mills got all 43 of the people aboard U.S. C-141s bound for Guam--and safety.

Then Mills heard that an Air America C46 plane with 58 Vietnamese aboard had left Saigon illegally for Bangkok. Mills immediately went to their aid. At Bangkok he found the stranded 58 Vietnamese under the baleful eyes of Thai authorities. Mills took the whole bunch under his wing and told the immigration authorities that he would sponsor the group. He persuaded Swissair to fly the 58 to Hong Kong; the airline was technically violating the law, since the Vietnamese had no proper landing clearance or onward transportation. Never fearing, Mills cheerfully paid out $8,100 of his own for the group's passage. As Mills told TIME Correspondent David Aikman: "I would have bought tickets to Guam, but I didn't have enough money. I thought we would be sent on to Guam as soon as we got to Hong Kong."

No such luck. Hong Kong authorities threatened to return the group to Bangkok. At the airport, Mills picked up nine other stranded Vietnamese. All were taken into custody and detained at an old British army camp. But Mills appears to have been successful in persuading the U.S. consul general to allow his charges to fly on to Guam, even offering to pay their fares. "I'll buy the tickets if I have to hawk my left ear." The refugees probably will be released from the camp this week. In the meantime, Mills and Swissair have kept up their hopes. The airline has supplied food and clothes, and Mills acts as the group's personal legal counsel, moral overseer and English teacher. He has also spent nearly $2,000 for clothing, food and toys. Says Mills, "I've been buying bras, baby clothes, milk and bread --playing mama for them."

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