Vietnam after 50 years: Pauline shares if the story of the immigration for her family

The fall of Cigon 50 years ago The end of the Vietnam WarAnd for Paulin Lu of WCCO, she is witnessing the beginning of the story of her family’s immigration to America – a story that echoes with many Mennisotan families. LE shares her story below.

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While contracts have passed since the end of the war, pain and courage has been very new to my father.

For my mother, her family’s trip to the United States started 10 days before the fall of Cigon in 1975, when they fled on a huge cargo plane that the Americans sent to help the refugees escape.

All my ten brothers and sisters, along with the grandmother and grandfather, flew to Wake Island, which was used as an American treatment center during the end of the war.

Everyone only allowed one personal bag and their birth certificates. There was also no farewell to their loved ones who left behind, which included my mother, who was stuck in a small village with my great grandmother.

My mom will remain for another six years before reaching the United States; They were forced to work in the work camps that the Communists created for the country’s youth; The view was when her beloved country changed and wondering whether the government would discover who she was; And whether it will be punished since my grandfather worked in the American forces during the war as a translator and a driver.

Interactive map: Mom’s family trip

As for the rest of my mother’s family, they will spend three months in Fort Shafi in Arkansas, waiting for a sponsor. They had offers, but no one was ready to take dozens of people at one time, and they didn’t want to separate, so they waited.

After that, the first Baptist Church in Ouigo, New York, agreed to welcome all 12 in August 1975. It was great news for the small city. Even my grandfather and the family made the local paper.

Meanwhile, my father fought along with the Americans during the war in the southern Vietnamese navy. He was on his naval travel at the time of the fall and gave his commander orders to sail to the ocean for safety.

After realizing that southern Vietnam had fallen to the Communists, they knew that they could not return, up to a short moment, to say goodbye to the family and friends. They only had to run for that.

They sailed to the Gulf of Soyk, an American naval base in the Philippines, where they were turning into an American ship and sailed into Guam. It was not the only one, because the front pages of local newspapers acquired the fixed flow of refugees coming to the small island in the days and years after the fall.

My father will stay in a 25 -day dip. From there, he was flying to Gab Fort Inditon in Pennsylvania. Two weeks later, the news reached a shepherd in Connecticut.

Interactive map: my father’s trip

My father was alone in a new land, unfamiliar to culture and language, and barely any money for his name. He had to leave both his parents, six siblings and sisters in Vietnam.

For four years, his family did not know if he had died or alive. This is the time that my father took to run the courage to contact his family by mail. He was very afraid that his messages could be intercepted by the Communist government and that his family would pay the price of his escape.

About two months after his first message, my grandfather died of stroke. My father was not able to get home to say goodbye to the funeral. Another contract will be before Vietnam reopened to international travel.

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This story is part of Pauline Lu DocumentaryVietnam after 50 years: Thinking about a war that changed Minnesota“

Join WCCO on Wednesday, May 7, at 5 pm to conduct a special presentation at the Concordia College in Saint -Paul – hosted by the Hummung Studies Center:

• Benc Education Center (beet)
• 1282 Concordia Avenue, St. Paul, Mn 55104
• The attendees are encouraged to stand in LOT A, Carroll Street or Syndicate Street

Watch the full documentary below, or On YouTube channel.