![]() "If this is truly Camp 5, then I'm pretty sure that we're right around this bend. Today, it’s just a dry meadow at the bottom of a steep hill.Įvelyn ambles through the dry grass and looks around thoughtfully. This was the place the Kheo family called home in 1975. Then, we finally reach Camp 5, one of eight clusters of tents on the northern part of the base. We wander for a while among World War II quonset huts, which also served as the mess hall and medical clinic for the refugees. There was also a sense of guilt, she says, that her family had the means to get out by airplane, and get out early, compared to the “boat people” who came from Vietnam later, risking drowning and an uncertain future on rickety vessels. “I think that's why it was very hard for us, and for the longest time we never talked much about the experience.” “There is trauma in the whole experience of being evacuated from Vietnam,” says Evelyn. Get them in, get the helicopters out." Jessica (far left) and Evelyn (far right) with their family before they left Vietnam. We weren’t thinking how many we could get in just get them in. So just pack them into helicopters was our main concern. troops trying to get them out of the country. “It was still a war going on,” Duren recalls, explaining that North Vietnamese troops were firing on fleeing South Vietnamese and on the U.S. "If you got out before Saigon, you got out before the rush,” he tells the sisters, who left a week before the city fell to Communist forces. He was also in Saigon helping refugees onto helicopters back in 1975. Nguyen introduces us to a retired Marine, Michael Duren, who helped maintain the refugee camp during the war. Turns out, he stayed in the same section as the Kheo sisters: Camp 5. He, too, first came through Camp Pendleton as a refugee. (Suzie Racho/KQED)īut we’re given a tour by Phillip Nguyen, a civilian who works on the base maintaining many of the facilities. Jessica Kheo points out sites she remembers at Camp Pendleton. It’s hard to tell there was once a refugee camp here. Helicopters hover above, and Marines in fatigues walk past metal quonset huts. And I saw some GI walk by and he made a face like, ‘What's going on?’ But because we went through the war, we still have worries about not having food." Meeting a Marine Who Helped Evacuate RefugeesĬamp Talega, the section of Camp Pendleton that once housed the refugees, is dusty and hot. She would spread out a newspaper and dry the rice out outside of her tent every day. "There was a woman who saved the (leftover) rice. ‘I got the fish sauce!’ He would even say that in Vietnamese!”īut for all their funny stories about their teenage adventures, Jessica also recalls the pain of watching adults in the camp traumatized by the war. And then whenever he wanted to maybe flirt with some young lady, or be friendly with the kids, he would pull it out. So, in a way for him to connect with the refugees, he would walk around in his pocket with this little fish sauce. “I think he served in Vietnam and then he learned how to eat fish sauce. ![]() “Actually, it was a pretty good gift at the time,” she said. They were mortified, but touched by the gesture. One time, Evelyn said, a Marine even came running out of the base health clinic to give her and her friend a box of maxi-pads. If you’re a kid, it’s all the way down to your ankles,” Jessica said. “It was May, but it was cold for us, coming from Vietnam,” Evelyn said. The Marines shared scratchy blankets and clothes. A base nurse treated their sister for asthma with great tenderness. But Jessica and Evelyn remember the Marines as kind and gentle young men working to help the refugees. Their mother was nervous about having her young daughters around so many military men in uniform. I'm sure my mom was not happy, but for me it was fun.” “I never camped before so it was kind of like camping. So coming to Camp Pendleton felt like an adventure. ![]() ![]() They were sheltered teenagers - their mother hardly let them out of her sight. They spoke French and wore fashionable dresses and barrettes in their hair. Jessica and Evelyn came from a well-to-do family in Vietnam. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |