Following the fall of Saigon in 1975, many Vietnamese fled Vietnam fearing persecution from the new communist regime. Many traveled by boat to the Philippines and Guam where they were processed and then transported to one of four refugee camps in the United States, one being Fort Chaffee in Arkansas.
“The war was going on and the lady said, ‘I’m leaving, but I’m not taking you with me.’ I said okay, but I got scared, ‘cause I thought, what am I going to do. If I stay in that house the communist come over and kill me. But she changed her mind and said, ‘You can go with me.’ We take off for the boat and I lost her ‘cause there’s so many people. God helped me, he bring me over and make sure I’m safe,” said Kim with certainty. I was on the boat for one month and I had no idea where we were going. It was a big boat, a huge one, it’s three stories. There were a lot of people on the boat. I saw a soldier trying to guide us and someone shot him and he fell off overboard. The captain took off and we were in the middle of the ocean. I asked where we going and he said we go and then we come back in a couple days. We didn’t come back in a couple days, he kept going. People were sick and dying and they throw [them] overboard. They just wrap them in blankets and throw them over, there’s no place to bury them. I’m not scared, I had a little seasick, but not much. We out of food, we ate rice with bug in it, we had no water, we drank the sea water. We had to,” exclaimed Kim, “we had no water. One day the captain told everybody, I don’t care how many people in the family, 10, 20, one or two, he want two bar of gold. He didn’t want money, he said giving him money was useless. I don’t have no gold. A lady said if we have no gold you have to take the money. What you do with the people who have no gold. He said I put you overboard. That got me scared,” said Kim excitedly. “I don’t want to die that way. I sit on the side of the boat and I cry, I worried they would throw me overboard. A lady with long hair came and she said, ‘what’s wrong?’ I told her I got scared, I don’t got no gold, I came by myself and I don’t want to die that way. She said, ‘Don’t worry, if anyone asks you who you go with you say you go with me.’ And I didn’t know who she was. She left and after that, no one came [and] ask me, no one came and ask me nothing, they brought me some food and water,” said Kim softly. “The next day I said I’m going to go find that lady and thank her. I went from top to bottom, each person I see, a long-haired lady, it[s] not her, she disappear. That’s my angel,” Kim told us with the utmost confidence the mysterious lady was sent by God.
After leaving Saigon, the boat Kim was on traveled first to Thailand. “They brought us some food and water, they gave us bunches of apples and oranges and I thought, oh, boy, great food, I’ve never seen that. I say, I’m going to eat all of them, I’m so happy.” They gave Kim an apple, an orange, grapes and some rice lifting the spirits of one hungry little girl. “They let us stay there three days and said we got to go and we go to Singapore,” continued Kim, “They had lists of people, who gets off the boat and I just sneak in and go with people, no one ask me . . . no one ask me. I see them in line to get food and I just got in line. I see people have plates of food with all kinds of stuff and I thought, man, I want some of that!” she exclaimed wide-eyed. “I got in line and they gave me an orange and they gave me an apple, I couldn’t say no, I wanted to tell her, give me one more, I’m greedy, ‘cause I want to eat. I remember the food I eat was baked beans and ketchup and rice, oh, it was good!” said Kim recalling the satisfying meal. Once Kim’s belly was filled, probably beyond capacity, she found a spot under a tree and fell asleep, unfortunately, near a pile of ants. She awoke to biting ants all over her and was frantically trying to get them off. A young serviceman came to her aid telling her to go to the restroom to shower, but once again the language barrier presented a problem. He finally took her hand and led her to a lady who helped her while he found her some clothes to change into. “I go in there and take a shower and he went and found me some clothes. They were too big ‘cause I was a little bitty kid, just bones was all I was. The clothes don’t fit me, but I don’t care, I put them on and wear them. He took me up to the office, he spoke to a lady that was a translator and asked me who I came here with. I said nobody, just me. He said I’ll get somebody to adopt you. I told him I want to go back to Vietnam, ‘cause I can’t speak the language, I can’t understand, I don’t know anybody, I want to go back. He told the lady to tell me not to go back, he said if she goes back she will die, the communists will kill her. I said but I want to go back to my momma and daddy where my family is, I don’t want it here. He told the lady I would be fine. The lady asked me where the lady was I came with. I told her I don’t know she somewhere, maybe she here and she asked me what her name was. The man said I’ll find her. He found her and she came up there and said, ‘I going to adopt you.’ When she said she was going to adopt me I thought to myself, oh no! I don’t want to go through this. But I have no choice, I can’t speak I don’t know anything so I said I would go with her. She took me to the refugee camp with her family and they gave everybody a folded bed, a blanket and a pillow to sleep. She take the pillow away from me, she said that one my son needs, so she take it. I couldn’t take a nap, it was so hot and she wanted me to sit there when her kids take a nap, she gave me a hand fan to fan her kids so they could sleep and I fall asleep and get cussed out for that. Every day seven days a week I do that,” declared Kim. The lady would make Kim go stand in line to get food for her kids, even though they were grown and could do it themselves. Washing their clothes, was another of her jobs and she washed clothes until her hands bled. “I started thinking, my mom and daddy never make me do this, why I do for you, you don’t pay me, you are not taking care of me.” Kim continued to turn over in her mind why she was staying and working for nothing for this woman and began to weigh her options. She realized she didn’t have many, if she didn’t continue with the lady she would be left on her own again. They stayed there for two weeks, then the woman told her they were going to go to the United States. Kim had no idea where the United States was, but she got up the next morning and packed everything for the next leg of their journey.