I.

The day before I left Vietnam, my family and I went to stay at the home of some wealthy relatives. Their house was large and well built, and my parents thought it would be safer to stay at their house. I couldn't sleep very well that night. There were artillery shellings near Saigon, and at the airport. Our relatives' house shook all night from the shellings.

On the morning of April 30, 1975, people were running around aimlessly in Saigon. The people were afraid. They could anticipate that the end of the war was near, and they were trying to find a way to get out. During the war, there were countless propaganda shows on television about the Communists committing massacres in the cities they had captured, and how they would also buried people alive in common graves. There was also one particular television drama showing how the Communists would torture these people by pulling out their fingernails with pliers. Even though I had never met any Communist, I was afraid from the stories I had seen on television. I think my parents were also afraid that the Communists would take revenge against them for moving South in 1955.

II.

That morning, my family and I went to the main port of Saigon where large ships would dock. There were so many people, and no ship would come to the dock because the people would try to get on board. I became separated from my family due to the sheer number of people crowding around.

I was standing by the dock when this large ship moved along close to the dock. There were so many people on that ship. A man who stood near me found a long piece of planking and he placed it between the dock and the side of the moving ship. He walked on that plank and got on board. Several other people including me walked on that same planking and got aboard the ship.

The ship continued to move toward the river. I found out later there were about four thousand people on that ship. It was some kind of a cargo ship, by the name of "Truong Xuan," which I think means Spring Time. I know "Xuan" means Spring, but I am not sure now what "Truong" means. My Vietnamese is not that good now.

It was before noon time when I got on that ship. The ship moved along that river until sometime in the afternoon when it got stuck in the sandbar. When night time came, we could see fireworks lighting up the sky in Saigon. I think there was a celebration of some sort.

III.

The next morning, there was a South Vietnamese Navy's patrol boat with several people on board. They pulled us off the sandbar then abandoned their patrol boat after getting on our ship. We continued on that river toward the sea. As we passed an island on our way to the open sea, the people on our ship were afraid we might get shot at by the Communists on that island.

There wasn't enough room on that ship for four thousand people. People could find enough room to lie down, but to walk around the ship was almost impossible. The ship didn't have food or water. Perhaps there was food and water for the crew and for a group of selected people, but for the majority of us, there was neither food nor water. After two days at sea without water, I tried but unable to drink my own urine to quench my thirst. The ship developed engine troubles, and the engine room became flooded with water. We drifted around for most of the second day at sea.

IV.

On the third day, a Danish ship rescued us. We all boarded their ship and abandoned our ship at sea. I still didn't have any food to eat, but there was fresh water to drink. The Danish ship took two days to get us to Hong Kong, where we were processed and then trucked to the refugee camp.

Since I was by myself, they put me in a camp with other single men. Others were sent to the family camp. At fourteen years old, I was the youngest person in the single men camp. Most of the men in that camp were in the military, and they were a tough bunch. I was too young to associate with these men, so I played with other boys around my age.

V.

I lost track of time when I was in that camp. The camp was enclosed by barb wires, and either the Hong Kong police or the British Ghurkas were guarding the camp 24 hours a day. We weren't allow to leave the camp. I felt lonely and hungry most of the time I was there. They didn't feed us enough. There was no breakfirst. Lunch and dinner was usually a bowl of rice and a couple cubes of stewed fatty pork.

One night I couldn't sleep, so I walked to the courtyard. Out of the darkness, I heard a grown man sobbing. It was the saddest sound I've heard in my life.

VI.

One day I heard my name on the list of people chosen for the United States on the loud speaker. I didn't feel anything. Perhaps I was too numb to feel anything. But several men approached me that day and congratulated me for being taken in by the United States. We were trucked to the airport and boarded a DC-10 for a refugee camp in Pennsylvania.

Helicopter Evacuation From the American Embassy	Helicopter Evacuation
Boat People Journey	Boat People Journey
Boat People Journey	Boat People Journey
Boat People Journey	Boat People Journey
Boat People Journey	Boat People Journey
To the Refugee Camp	Inside the Refugee Camp
Living in the Refugee Camp	Living in the Refugee Camp
Living in the Refugee Camp	Living in the Refugee Camp

Table of Contents