Heroic Rescuer Dies 55 Years After Bombing

University of Texas at Austin, oral history project

An Army major who rescued numerous bombing victims after a horrifying terrorist incident in Vietnam died Tuesday (June 16, 2020) in San Antonio, Texas. Abel Vela would have been 94 years old next week.

Although his decorated military career spanned two wars, Vela’s most prominent heroism occurred while he was wearing civilian clothes at the famous My Canh floating restaurant in Saigon. Vela was waiting to meet friends before crossing the street for dinner at the My Canh when a Viet Cong explosive blew shrapnel across the restaurant. 

U.S. Joint Public Affairs Office

As Vela evacuated casualties, a second bomb detonated, and although injured, he continued to aid the wounded. As Vela rescued the last person—a little girl he carried in his arms—a photographer snapped a dramatic photo that was printed on the front page of American newspapers, including Stars and Stripes.

The shocking incident caused more than 100 casualties from six nations, but most were Vietnamese civilians. At the time, the U.S. Joint Public Affairs Office reported 20 Americans killed and wounded.

One year ago, Vela finally met the girl he saved, Aimee Bartelt, a naturalized American citizen now living in New York. Aimee’s Vietnamese mother was killed in the double bombing, along with her mother’s friend in the U.S. Army.

Vela found Aimee, who had suffered a gaping thigh wound, underneath another body and carried her to safety. They went to the hospital in the same vehicle. Vela told me, “I wasn’t worried because I was still alive and walking and was more concerned about trying to help the Americans and the young baby.”

Aimee a few years after the bombing

The child, not quite two years old when Vela scooped her up off the restaurant floor, is now 56. Aimee was devastated by the news of Vela’s death. "I never thought the man carrying me away in that photo would ever enter my life again. Miraculously he did, and now he's gone again. But what a gift it was to know him.”

Aimee had discovered me after reading my exposé about the My Canh tragedy in Vietnam magazine. After I located Vela in Texas, the two met for the first time when Aimee made a private phone call to wish Vela a happy 93^rd birthday. (Scroll back for earlier stories)

Abel Vela was born on June 26, 1926, the son of Mexican immigrants. His father was a sharecropper and Vela and his siblings worked alongside their parents in their cotton and corn fields, according to an oral history interview conducted by the journalism school at the University of Texas at Austin.

Vela as a young enlisted man. Univ. of Texas-Austin

During his first enlistment in World War II, Vela helped liberate Jewish prisoners from concentration camps. After the war, he met his wife, Angela, in Austria.

When Vela’s Vietnam service ended in 1970, the couple returned to San Antonio where Abel was the first Latino to own a McDonald’s franchise. This time he had to fight prejudice. “They didn’t want any Hispanics or blacks,” he told oral history interviewer Nora Frost in 2008. “I went over to [McDonald’s] headquarters and took my cot with me and slept there, until I was able to get an interview.” The Velas eventually operated five Mc Donald’s.

Fifty-five years after Abel and Aimee were brought together at the chaotic bombing scene, Aimee has lost her hero. “Now, Abel Vela is not just some stranger in a photo anymore, but a remarkable man who led a remarkable life and left behind a lot of people who loved and admired him. I'm so thankful to be one of these.”

Abel Vela is survived by his wife Angela and an extended family that spans five generations.

An internet photo showing the moment Vela picked up Aimee