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40 years ago, Saigon fell. You'll recall the pictures of the choppers on the embassy roof. They have been around this week due to the anniversary.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/29/us/vietnam-sea-rescue/index.html
"On April 29, 1975, Nguyen did something that could have been ripped from the script of a "Mission Impossible" movie. He was fleeing from the North Vietnamese army with his wife and their three young children as communist soldiers crashed the gates of Saigon. For 20 excruciating minutes, Nguyen's copter literally hovered between life and death over the South China Sea as a group of astonished U.S. Navy sailors watched from the deck of a nearby ship."
Read the whole thing.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/29/us/vietnam-sea-rescue/index.html
"On April 29, 1975, Nguyen did something that could have been ripped from the script of a "Mission Impossible" movie. He was fleeing from the North Vietnamese army with his wife and their three young children as communist soldiers crashed the gates of Saigon. For 20 excruciating minutes, Nguyen's copter literally hovered between life and death over the South China Sea as a group of astonished U.S. Navy sailors watched from the deck of a nearby ship."
Read the whole thing.
Stole a helicopter, flew out to sea, found the US fleet and dropped his family to the sailors, then he had to ditch the helo - a Chinook.
He painstakingly learned the English language. He worked as a janitor at night while going to electronics school during the day. When he got a job at Boeing, he awakened at 4every morning and was out the door a half-hour later. A family in a Lutheran church helped sponsor his family. Still, six months after he arrived in the United States, he took his family off government assistance, telling them the United States was the land of opportunity.
He just didn't want to take; he wanted to give back. He told his family they were going to become U.S. citizens within five years so they could pay taxes and vote. From his children, he expected stellar grades and told them college was non-negotiable.
He painstakingly learned the English language. He worked as a janitor at night while going to electronics school during the day. When he got a job at Boeing, he awakened at 4every morning and was out the door a half-hour later. A family in a Lutheran church helped sponsor his family. Still, six months after he arrived in the United States, he took his family off government assistance, telling them the United States was the land of opportunity.
He just didn't want to take; he wanted to give back. He told his family they were going to become U.S. citizens within five years so they could pay taxes and vote. From his children, he expected stellar grades and told them college was non-negotiable.
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