ETH125 Week 1 Assignment

ETH125 Week 1 Assignment

April 4th, 2009

It’s now been almost 34 years ago my parents were among the thousands of Vietnamese immigrants that entered the United States as refugees. They were rescued during “Operation Frequent Wind” in the capital city of Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City that it has been renamed. They often speak of the horrors and trauma they experienced fleeing from the threat of war, communist tanks and persecution. The city was attacked by a series of heavy rocket attacks in April of 1975, which led to the Fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. My parents had to hide inside a bomb shelter during the attacks with thousands of others. They lost some of their family members and many of their friends in the war. Before they could be evacuated by an U.S. Air Force helicopter they had to leave all their belongings behind. There was no room onboard for any of their luggage on board, so all they had were their clothes. The helicopter brought them to a cargo ship, where my parents were screened, registered and treated for injuries they sustained from the rocket attacks (Butterfield, 1975). My father still has a scar on his leg as a permanent reminder of the day they left Saigon. They swear they never want to return. He says he still has nightmares every once in a while about what they experienced during the war in Vietnam. He says he does not ever want to go back to Ho Chi Minh City since he does not want to be reminded of any more of the past, or to live through what happened to them over again in his mind.

My parents first arrived to Clark Air Base in the Philippines before being flown to Guam, where a refugee camp had been set up to receive thousands of Vietnamese refugees. In the camp they experienced scorching heat, long lines to get army food rations, and unbearable stench from the communal latrines. After spending a few weeks in a refugee camp in Guam they finally arrived to the United States. Once again they came to a refugee camp that was set up at...