Vietnam refugee to talk at Medford Leas

By Rita Manno, South Jersey Local News

“All I could see were the thousands of hollow eyes looking in despair as the cargo vessel slowly pulled away from its berth along the Saigon River. This moment, so calm and so quiet, was punctured nightly when I woke up, breaking out in a sweat, after seeing that a pair of those hollow eyes were my own.

HAI DO, with his wife, Kathleen, and sons Timothy and Jeremy visiting Vietnam. Do will speak at Medford Leas at 11 a.m., Oct. 12.

“For years after the fall of Saigon on April 30,1975, the scene played out every night in my sleep as a reminder of how close I came to being left behind as Communist forces entered the city.”—Hai Do reflecting on the nightmares he had after fleeing Vietnam.

Do was 17 years old, living in South Vietnam with his siblings and parents. The Vietnam War had been going on for his entire life. He could not imagine that he and his family would become part of the thousands of Vietnamese known as the “boat people,” who did everything they could to survive a treacherous trip out of the only country they had ever known.

Do will tell his riveting story of escape and survival, “It was Our Last Hope – Fleeing From Vietnam in 1975,” at the Medford Campus Theater at Medford Leas on Oct. 12 at 11 a.m. His presentation is part of Medford Leas’ “Pathways to Learning” program. The event is open to the public.

The Vietnam War ended with more than 55,000 American service people killed. It was a war that tore the United States apart, forced a president not to seek re-election and turned political conventions into street fights. For Americans, it seemed like an endless conflict costing too many lives and too much treasure.

Living in Vietnam during the war had its own share of daily life-threatening situations.

“All I did for all those years was try to survive,” said Do. “I needed to make it through the day. I wasn’t trying to be a hero. I didn’t want to be noticed. I just wanted to blend into the woodwork.”

Today at age 55, Do is an assistant managing editor for multimedia at The Philadelphia Inquirer. For the first 20 years after he arrived in the United States, he avoided talking about his years in Vietnam and his harrowing escape.

“It took too many years for us to adjust living here,” he said. “We didn’t speak much English, and we felt worthless.”

Read the full article by Rita Manno from South Jersey Local News.