The Escape

Monday I traveled to Elko/Spring Creek with Kel and my Aunt Cam. Kel was going there to attend college. Aunt Cam was hitching a ride to visit her son. While traveling, I had the opportunity to talk to my aunt about how my family was able to leave Viet Nam at the end of the war. This is our story.

Background: In Viet Nam, our household included great grandmother Xuan, grandmother Mao, my mother Cang with me and sister Xuan My, her sister Cam, husband Raymond James Pastor with kids - Sonny and Thu, and her brother Ca, wife Kim with kids Kim-Uyen and Nghia. My uncle was in the Vietnamese Air Force. My mother and her sister worked for the American government at the Air Force base, particularly, they worked at the bowling alley. Uncle Ray was an American soldier. (My uncle and aunt's love story is wonderful-I will tell that someday too)

At the end of the war, orders were given for all American military personnel to start evacuating. The base bowling alley became the processing center for all soldiers and their dependents. This was all done with some secrecy as to not send the Vietnamese people into complete panic. Since Uncle Ray was American, he would be allowed to take my aunt and their kids to the United States. His supervisor made a deal with Uncle Ray that if he stayed and helped run the processing center until the very end, he would arrange for all of our family to go with him to the United States. Uncle Ray agreed.

As the Communist overtook one province, town, or village after another, American and Vietnamse soldiers were retreating - evacuating to Saigon to get to the military base or the embassy. As these soldiers walked, Vietnamese citizens who survived joined them for protection and escape. The communists trailed this mass exodus of people, shooting rockets into them, thus littering village roads with dead bodies. Those who made it to the base retold stories of horror as they begged to come to the United States.

Because my mom and aunt were a part of the processing crew, they were privy to the knowledge that Americans were leaving. Listening to villagers retell stories of death, they too began to panic, fearing for the safety of their family. Aunt Cam went to her husband Uncle Ray and with all panic and urgency stated, "If you do not get my family out, I am not going with you." "We all go or we all stay!"

Uncle Ray immediately went to his supervisor and pleaded for our immediate departure. This was 24 hours before the Fall of Saigon. His supervisor agreed. While my mother and Uncle Ray continued working and processing those leaving at the base, my aunt took a jeep and went home to get the family.

When she came home, great grandmother and grandma had just returned from the market with me, Xuan My, Thu and Sonny. As the adults hurriedly grabbed their belongings, my Uncle Ca came home from his tour of duty. My aunt sent him to the base on his motorcycle, knowing he would be able to get inside the gates because he was a uniformed officer. He left immediately. After he left, his wife and children came home from visiting her mother. They too climbed on to the jeep with what they had on them and we all left.

Our family had to leave as though we were taking a nice drive together. The Vietnamese police were arresting citizens attempting to leave the country, jailing them for causing panic. Our family passed through several checkpoints successfully because of the bribes we offered the police in the form of money and jewelry.

We arrived on base and left immediately on a cargo airplane loaded with American soldiers, their families and other refugees.

We landed in Guam. We stayed one night in a refugee camp. The next day we flew to the Phillipines and stayed 2 weeks while Uncle Ray made arrangements and waited for paperwork to be approved. Our first home was Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Uncle Ray did not believe in welfare. For the first year of our lives in the United States, he was financially responsible for all of us. He taught his wife and the other adults to drive. He taught us English. He paid for medical bills, groceries, clothing. He took the adults to look for work. For all this, Aunt Cam said he never once complained. He became a father to me and my sister. It seemed that he was never too busy to play and wrestle with us. I don't remember him ever being tired.

After a year, my mom and her brother found jobs in Las Vegas. We moved. They stayed. After several moves, they too ended here in Vegas. Uncle Ray died of a heart attack when I was a junior in high school. I miss him every day.

I don't know what causes a man to step forward and take on such tremendous responsibilities. I am sure his love for my aunt was a great motivator. I also would like to think that he would have chosen to save us regardless. Perhaps the lesson he leaves is that when we are called to save a life, to make a difference, we do!