The Escape from Vietnam

Prologue
The Vietnam War lasted 20 years, from November 1st, 1955, to April 30th,
1975, when Vietnam's capital city, Saigon, now present day Ho Chi Minh City fell.
North Vietnam took over South Vietnam, and Vietnam became communist, so
everything was government controlled. People fled Vietnam because of political
oppression and poverty. One of those refugees was my maternal grandfather,
Ông ngoại.

In 1976, more than 6,000 refugees left Vietnam, and in 1977, nearly
800,000 fled the country. About one third of those escaping died at sea.

Chapter 1: The Escape

It was the summer of 1977, Ông ngoại was 22 years old and would be the
youngest on the escape boat from city of Nha Trang to the Phillipines. They were
planning their family's escape on Ông ngoại's father's fishing boat and needed to
have enough supplies for 50 people. Over a few weeks, they started collecting
food, water, and diesel for the journey to the Philippines.

At first, they dropped off 10 people on a secret peninsula outside of Nha

Trang and the remaining 40, in Nha Trang, saved any leftover food, water, and
diesel. Each time they had any supplies left over they waited until nightfall and
secretly drove a small fishing boat out to the peninsula so that the 10 on the
peninsula had enough food and water to survive and guarded the rest of the
supplies for the trip. Each day, soldiers distributed only enough diesel to each
fishing family to fish for the day so nobody could escape. To collect more diesel,
Ông ngoại plugged the fuel meter on his boat so it constantly showed half a tank
even when it was full.

One night, one of their boats bringing supplies out to the peninsula got
caught as soon as it left Nha Trang. When Ông ngoại found out that they got
caught, he informed everyone that they had to leave right away because if the
caught people were beaten, they would talk and everyone would be exposed.

Although the amount of food and water, wasn't enough and they only had 4,000L
of diesel instead of the 5,000L that they estimated they would need to reach the
Phillipines, they still had to take their chances. If they stayed behind, they would
all be arrested and beaten in jail, and any of their belongings would be taken
away by the state.
 Instead of 40 people, only 5 people left to collect the 10 people on the peninsula
and the supplies. They drove out on their fishing boat in the dark with no lights to
avoid anybody noticing. When they got close to the peninsula they only circled
around because they were worried that the 10 could be arrested by soldiers and
were waiting to ambush them. If they used the light to flash the secret signal, a
soldier could shoot at the light and someone could get killed! Ông ngoại decided
to attach the light onto a very long pole and instructed everyone to go below the
deck. If the soldiers shot at the light, hopefully they would be far away enough
from the flying bullets. Instead of flashing back the secret code, lights were
flashing around in no pattern! They were frightened! Had the others been caught
and their supplies confiscated? If so, there is no chance they could escape without
enough food, water, and diesel to last them the whole trip. Would the family
members they left behind be arrested as well?

It was almost dawn, and their boat was still circling around, they were too
scared to go onto the peninsula. Suddenly, they heard another boat engine. Could
it be soldiers looking for them? Each time the other boat came closer, the sound
of their engine getting louder, they drove in a different direction until it was quiet
and they switched off their engine so they wouldn't be heard. After doing this for
a while the boat finally left.

The sun was about to rise, they couldn't wait any longer or they would be
seen. They cautiously drove to the meeting spot and saw their friends waiting for
them. There were no soldiers, instead, they saw two fishermen sitting on a cave
smoking and then they realized it was the fisherman's cigarette lighters that were
flashing. They jumped onto the cave and quickly tied the fishermen up so they
couldn't inform the soldiers that there were people trying to escape. “Do you want
to come with us?” offered Ông ngoại. But they turned it down because they didn't
want to leave their young children behind. After they loaded their boats they
untied the fishermen, and set off on their journey.

Four days later, they only had 20L of diesel left, and not enough food and
water to last them. Ông ngoại turned off the engine to save the remaining diesel
for storms. It was important to do this because during a storm, you need to drive
your boat directly into the waves to prevent the boat from flipping over.
Everybody except Ông ngoại was crying and wanted to turn around. Should they
turn around? If they did, they wouldn't have enough supplies to get back either.
What if their boat floated to another city and there were soldiers there? No, they
had to continue on their journey.

Just then, they saw a very small light bouncing above the waterline. They
could only see the light at night so they eagerly waited for the sun to set to see if
the light came closer. Whenever they saw the light, they drove towards it. They
could see the light getting larger and larger When one night they finally saw a
huge boat slowly pulling two ferries. Ông ngoại and the others were so excited,
they drove up close, threw ropes onto the big boat, and climbed on. There was
nobody on the deck, so they walked around until they found people hiding below
deck, hiding from the pirates they thought were taking over their boat!

Luckily, one of the 15 that were escaping studied aviation for 2 years in the
USA and spoke English. He was able to communicate with them and learned that
they were from Japan. Feeling sorry for them, the Japanese gave them 100L of
fuel and water in their storage buckets, and even gave them lots of cookies!

They thanked the Japanese and continued on their journey after getting
navigational directions. After another day of traveling, again they saw lights in
the distance. It was a big Filipino fishing boat! They were almost there! They
were invited onto the boat and were given a nice meal of rice and fish. They were
told it would take about 1week to get to the Philippines.

They finally arrived at a small village in the morning, They got fish every
day for 1-2 weeks, and 40L of diesel. They only spent 5-10L a day and saved
2000L of diesel, and then they escaped. Five people left that night. and wanted
to find the big city.

2 Days Later

They arrived at Manila where there were many lights and sounds. There
was a fishing boat, and the person in the boat was very scared. No one came for
Ông ngoại. They tied boat to a retaining wall, and then a boat came in and told
them to follow the boat. They followed the boat numbers 96 and 97 and tied their
boat to the 96 and 97 boats.

The boat #96 was for Chinese that escaped Vietnam, and boat #97 is for
Vietnamese that escaped Vietnam. Everyone went on the 97 boat, but the
Fillipinos said they cannot take anything from thier boat!! They left their boat
behind and then sold it. The 97 boat left Manila and then took them to Lubang
island.

See More in The Escape 2

Infographic: Manila to Lubang Island

Part 2 Of Chapter 1: On The Island

In 1978, Ông ngoại arrived at the island. He saw people from his village,
and had to build his own house and bed. Cocunut leaves were for the roof,
bamboo sticks were for the bed.

Ong Ngoai worked in a office, speaking on a mic to announce when people

get food. He was allowed to leave camp as an employee. ON noticed a radio
wasn't working, so he fixed it. The store owner was happy, so he called
everybody in the camp so ON can fix their things. ON made money fixing things
for the other people in the camp.

The island was being interuppted by Vietnamese, so they had to transfer to

island Tara
Infographic: Lubang Island to Tara island