By John E. Carey
The U.S. Navy destroyers off the coast of Vietnam tried to rescue as many of the refugees pouring out as they could. The larger ships, like the aircraft carriers, were running out of deck space for helos so many landed in the water. Some that landed safely were jettisoned overboard as soon as the crews were out of the aircraft.
Everyone in the crew of every ship got the Humanitarian Service Medal, I believe.
But the escaping people continued to come out of Vietnam for over a decade! A lot of Americans don’t have a realization of this. One of my in-laws was on a boat attacked by pirates who killed the men and raped the women.
Over the years I picked up boatloads of Vietnamese two or three times more. After Desert Storm I rescued Catholic Iraq Kurds fleeing Iraq….The U.S. Navy has a long and proud history of humanitarian work.
One of my Vietnamese friends here in northern Virginia was a helicopter pilot for the Republic of Vietnam. He took Vice President Ky around a few times, I think. On the last day he took the helo to Tan Son Nhut, landed, commandeered a vehicle and went to find my wife’s family. When they got back to Tan Son Nhut, I was told, the front gate area was a sea of Vietnamese looking for a ride out. They couldn’t get through the mass of humanity without some quick thinking.
My friend took out his service side arm, pointed it at his own head, and told the crowd as loud as he could that he’d kill himself if he couldn’t get his family through. And he told them he was a pilot and could take some people out.
Like the Red Sea before Moses, I was told, the crowd parted.
But his helo was gone.
He didn’t have much fixed wing time but he found something he could fly and a swarm of people joined the family around the aircraft. He apparently had to threaten people with his side arm to keep them off the plane. Even so, the plane was desperately over loaded.
My wife said they actually hit some trees on the way out.
When they landed, there was a branch in the wheel well!
They all got to the coast and found a boat but there weren’t enough places. My wife and her brother Fong gave up their seats for others.
Fong died in detention and my wife was in prison for several years.
After that she got out by boat. The motor failed after about an hour. There were 62 people in the boat for 22 some days. Four people died.
They got to the Philippines and lived 40-50 men, women, and children to a room with only one gallon of fresh water a day per person for 10 years.
Then the Philippine government sent them back to Saigon: where my wife was wanted by the state and had no papers.
She walked to Laos. She finally got safely to the USA in 1998.
Long journey!
Some links:
http://www.vietam.org/
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D05E2DF1038F930A2575AC0A965948260
http://www.boatpeople.org/boat_people_the_journey.htm
http://www.historynet.com/culture/religion/3028621.html?featured=y&c=y
