Comment on Ex-refugees return to base 40 years after fall of Saigon

By DEBBIE TRUONG, PennLive.com, San Antonio Express-News: World
Sun, 06/28/2015 - 9:46am

Ex-refugees return to base 40 years after fall of Saigon

(AP) — For more than 22,000 Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees, the road to resettlement after the Vietnam War led through Fort Indiantown Gap. Nearly 200 people attended the reunion at the Gap, including former refugees who came from as far as California, their families as well as volunteers and military personnel who tended to classrooms, mess halls and other facilities at the camp when it was open for eight months in 1975. For many, there had been 40 years of separation between them and the time they last stepped foot on the military base, which was temporarily converted into one of four resettlement centers in the United States that accepted refugees in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. A handful stayed overnight in barracks, mirroring the living quarters refugees would have settled into decades ago. Some women and young girls navigated the banquet room in Ao Dais, a traditional Vietnamese dress. Saying he refused to surrender, Bui evacuated on a small boat that led into the Pacific Ocean, where he was later transferred onto a larger naval ship. A junior in high school at time, Hollsinger said the arrangement introduced her to Vietnamese culture and language, recalling that Pham's family cooked once a week and would make enough egg rolls and spring rolls to last days.

 

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