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The Mission Accomplished
The Vietnam War ended more than 42 year ago but it was still in my mind with all the memorable experiences throughout my life growing up in the terrible war.
When I was young I had never dreamed of one day I left my country and lived somewhere in the world for good. It happened one day in the spring of 1975 that turned my world upside down.
I was born in Hanoi in 1949 in a big family. We lived happily in a French villa near one of the beautiful lakes in the city. My father worked as a Post Office inspector who was the only breadwinner.
The Geneva Accords was signed to divine the country in half in 1954 to make my father to decided to move to the Saigon. This was our first diaspora experience. I was young as a five years old so I had not remembered much about Hanoi and enjoyed the life of a young boy in Saigon. However, the war started to shimmer and became violently beginning in the late 1960's and affected all the Vietnamese families.
I was lucky not to be drafted since I was the only boy at home. I finished my high school and admitted to University of Saigon... I had to give up my education as the Fall of Saigon was coming near.
My brother who was an army doctor died during his service. Later my father also passed away in his stroke to make a great loss to my family. I was lucky not to be drafted since I was the only boy at home. I finished my high school and admitted to University of Saigon, Faculty of Pedagogy to become an English teacher. As my dream nearly came true when our class was ready to take the final exams in our senior year. I had to give up my education as the Fall of Saigon was coming near.
During the war one of my sister, Thanh Tu, was lucky to study abroad in the United States in 1965. After her graduation she became one of the two Vietnamese flight attendants of Pan Am and later married to Robert Ruseckas, an US Air Force service man, who stationed in Okinawa. After his duties they settled in Hawaii and he became a student of Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii. He can speak Vietnamese with northern accent, Mandarin Chinese and Japanese fluently.
At the end of March 1975, the North Vietnamese Army marched southward and liberated the cities on the way and headed to Saigon any day. The tide of refugees fled to the south and became a horrible scene on TV.
Bob, or Anh Kha, his Vietnamese name, decided to go back to Saigon and get my family out since the Pan Am Director in Saigon agreed to reserve the seats for the five of us. My mother, three of my single sisters and me. He withdrew all cash savings to buy five flight tickets for us and flew to Saigon. My sister decided to stay in Honolulu to coordinate the mission by telephone.
The flight turned out to be the last Pan Am duty into Saigon. Bob had thought that he just came to Saigon, picked us up and his mission would be accomplished but it did not happened as planned. He found only my mother and Ngoc Tu, one of my sisters, at the airport.
The day before Bob flew to Saigon I was at the Pan Am Ticket Office in Saigon on the 23th of April to asked for permission to get on the flight since I was related to my sister who worked for Pan Am but the office manager denied flatly because I did not have a passport. So when Bob was at the airport the next day on the 24th of April I was at the Pan Am ticketing office with the slight hope to board the plane. I dashed home and found out my mom and Ngoc Tu had left to the Tan Son Nhat Airport.
He later he asked me to volunteer to help the US Consular personnel to interpret and translate for the Vietnamese people. They gave us documents (letters, wills...) then we translated to him and he decided to let them go or not.
Within ten minutes I packed some clothes, money (it was changed later to mere four dollars at the airport!), some documents, canned food and my precious camera and hurried to the airport. There was checkpoint monitored by the Vietnamese Marines at the airport entrance airport but anyhow I got through.
I met Trinh, my other sister, who worked at PX located right next to the airport. Bob tried to bring my sister and me to the shuttle bus that would deliver us to the waiting Pan Am on the airfield. But a group of security guards standing at the gate prevented us from escaping. It was a crime for a young man like me to leave the country that time. Bob heard these guards discussing to themselves to let me go with a price tag of $2000 dollars. They didn't know that Bob knew Vietnamese.
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Luckily, Trinh was given a Pan Am uniform by the lovely flight attendants. With big sunglasses and her unfitted uniform she sandwiched herself between the two flight attendants and walked to the shuttle bus. Later she was reunited with my mom and her sister, Ngoc Tu. The detail was made for TV movie about this flight Last Flight Out starring James Earl Jones and Richard Crenna. Their flight destination of freedom: Guam, an US territory.
As the huge Pan Am readied to taxi on the airfield, Bob took me out of the airport and let me stay at DAO, the American-run aiport, attached to Tan Son Nhat. This place now became a processing center for those who wanted to evacuate the country. Bob typed the list of my family and later he asked me to volunteer to help the US consular personnel to interpret and translate for the Vietnamese people. They gave us documents (letters, wills...)with the American names or pictures with American faces then we translated to him and he would decided to let them go or not.
Bob later decided to come back to the city by Trinh's motorbike to rescue the rest of my extended family members. Not some but 29 of them from the tiny babies to grandmothers. My brother's family and his wife's family, my oldest sister's family and her husband's family, my cousin and another sister, Khanh.
The next day on April 25 Bob led this big group to enter the airport by American army bus. With the clever and fast reaction by Bob, the bus entered the DAO airport safely through heavy security barriers. But how could he sponsored thirty of us while he was only a full-time student? The US consular personnel told him to choose ten people that would be on the list. Bob brought his case to him: "I can't choose. You choose. There's the mother breastfeeding a baby. There are grandmothers. These are brothers and sisters -in-law and their kids. You choose and I'll tell them." The consular eventually decided to accept Bob's pleas as he knew Bob with his Vietnamese speaking skills would help the processing of Vietnamese refugees.
Early on the 26th of April, our group was called to board the bus leading to a waiting US Air Force C-130 Hercules transport. However we had to wait for few hours since the plane had a fuel leaking problem. We had to stay put in the plane since the local military had been authorized to detain and shoot the refugees. Some had to pee in the Coke cans. My brother-in-law acted like Moses to lead us to the promised land.
We had a safe flight to Clark Airbase where we stayed in the tents and fed nicely. A few days later we were at the airport ready to transfer to Wake Island. While waiting for the flight we witnessed the terrible scene on TV as the helicopters of South Vietnamese landed on the Us Navy carrier and later they were thrown out to the deep ocean. Was that real happening or in my nightmare? On April 30th as we landed on Wake Island we heard the sad news that the capital of South Vietnam was captured by the North Vietnamese Army. No more Saigon! What a feeling!
Living on Wake Island for a week then we later transported on a C-140 to the mainland and stayed at a refugee camp in Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. Over here we were interviewed and permitted to settle in different parts of North America. It was time for my extended family to separate and go by their own way by their own choices. My brother's family decided to go to Kansas City, my sisters chose Pontiac, Michigan and some wanted to settle in Montreal, Canada. For me I ended up in Utah to attend Brigham Young University in Provo to finish my study.
We are grateful to Anh Kha or Bob, who alone came to Saigon in a nick of time to get us out to freedom. His courage and sacrifice will be ever forgotten. Even he and my sister had divorced but we always still remember him as our family hero. America and Canada now has citizens who has been contributing to the society and they were in this refugee group. There are doctors, dentists, engineers, teachers, architect, secretaries, restaurant owners.. to make both nations great and prosper.
Anh Kha, your mission had accomplished. Cám ơn anh rất nhiều!
Thank you, Anh Kha!
Thank you, America!
Thank you, Canada!
Đặng Thống Nhất is his Vietnamese name. He re-settled in Minneota in 1978 after spending sometime in Utah and California. He worked for Limited English Proficiency Department (LEP) at Minneapolis Public Schools as a teacher and resource teacher. He attended the University of Minnesota with a BS in Social Studies and a M.Ed. in Second Languages and Cultures. He also taught part-time Vietnamese language at the U of MN. After spending 36 years of teaching he is now retired. He's residing in Brooklyn Park with his wife since 1994.
Biographical Details
Submitted From: Brooklyn Park, MN
Primary Location During Vietnam: Saigon, Vietnam 
Story Subject: Refugee
This submission is part of Stories of Gratitude.
Go to the collection.
Story Themes: Close Call, Family, New Beginnings, Refugee, Relationships
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