Vietnamese American Oral History Project, UC Irvine
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VAOHP0048 1 Vietnamese American Oral History Project, UC Irvine Narrator: TUAN ANH LE Interviewer: Kathy Le Date: May 13, 2012 Location: Duarte, California Sub-collection: Linda Vo Class Oral Histories, 2012 Length of Interview: 01:40:02 KL: Okay. What is your name? TAL: My name’s Tuan. Last name Le, Le. Middle name Anh. KL: And your date of birth? TAL: Born in 1957…December 2nd 1957, yeah. KL: Where were you born? TAL: I born in Vietnam, Khánh Hòa, Vietnam. A small time in the middle of Vietnam, now they call Nha Trang. KL: What were your parents’ names? TAL: My parents’ name is Le The Truong. And my mom’s Phuong Thi Xuan. My dad is military, he work for air force, and my mom is pass away a while ago. I don’t remember much about her because she passed away when I was just 6 years old. So I lived with my dad and step mom. KL: Where did you grow up?
Vietnamese American Oral History Project, UC Irvine
Microsoft Word - VAOHP0048_F01.docxNarrator: TUAN ANH LE
Length of Interview: 01:40:02
KL: Okay. What is your name?
TAL: My name’s Tuan. Last name Le, Le. Middle name Anh.
KL: And your date of birth?
TAL: Born in 1957…December 2nd 1957, yeah.
KL: Where were you born?
TAL: I born in Vietnam, Khánh Hòa, Vietnam. A small time in the
middle of Vietnam, now they
call Nha Trang.
KL: What were your parents’ names?
TAL: My parents’ name is Le The Truong. And my mom’s Phuong Thi
Xuan. My dad is
military, he work for air force, and my mom is pass away a while
ago. I don’t remember much
about her because she passed away when I was just 6 years old. So I
lived with my dad and step
mom.
VAOHP0048 2
TAL: I grow up in…first when I young I grow up in Khánh Hòa, small
town in the middle of the
Vietnam, and when my dad transfer to another military base in
Saigon, Tân Sn Nht, so we
move to Saigon. So I live in Saigon until I grow up until I, you
know draft into the army.
KL: Were those the only two cities you lived in in Vietnam?
TAL: No I lived in a lot of…when I grow up, when I draft in the
army, and when I’m in the
army, and I go a lot of cities in Vietnam. Like Bình Hòa, Nha
Trang, Hu, Cam Ranh Base, and
Cn Th. That’s before 1975, and after 1975, I travel a lot of
places. I go a lot of place like Kênh
Giang, Rch Giá, Bình Long, Phan Thit, à Nng, Tây Ninh, and back to
Saigon.
KL: Can you tell me about some of your childhood memories? What you
did when you were
growing up, or anything you remember from your childhood?
TAL: I don’t remember in the childhood because I go to high school.
I don’t remember in the
middle of middle school, but I go to high school. The school is Le
Bao Tinh. Then I go to
another one they call Nguyn Trãi. And I finish high school and that
time the war getting bigger
and bigger in Vietnam, and after I finish high school I go to
college in Vietnam. Vietnam is the
school is different than America, and Vietnam you finish high
school and then you can join in
what you like to do. Like I like to do is law, so I join, so I go
to law school, like if you like to go
to Doctor, you just go to Doctor school, or you like Engineer, you
go to engineer school. Not like
in America, you have to go do over again with the gener- genera-
what’s that called?
Generation…regular education again in college in Vietnam we don’t
have to do that. When you
finish the high school that means you done with the education,
general education, and then after
that you go to, you know the school of whatever you like. So I go
to first year in law school in
Saigon and at that time I had draft into the war, about 17 years
old. 16 and half actually, 16 and
half I have to join to the military because if I don’t join in,
okay, when 17 they draft you in, you
VAOHP0048 3
have no choice, but when I 16 and half, 17, almost 17, I join in so
I have a choice so I pick the air
force. I join into the air force. I take the test, I pass, and then
I join the air force, but if they draft
you in you have to go to the general, like the army, you don’t
have, you don’t have a choice to
pick it out. And then after the army, and then you can pick out the
air force…navy…or army,
you know.
KL: Before that did you have any other jobs?
TAL: Yeah, before that when I go to high school, I have, I work for
the shipyard because I like
to, in Vietnam, most of the place you have people go out because we
have the ocean almost like
along the coast. Vietnam is the country along the coast, so you
know; there are a lot of shipyards
in Vietnam, so that time I work when I was young I work for
shipyard. I’m the welder, and the
drawer of the ship, you know, like you draw and cut the metal, how
to build the ship in Vietnam.
KL: So when you were doing that, did you guys gather together for
events with your coworkers
or with neighbors or just in the city did you have…?
TAL: Yeah, when I do that, before I join the army, and you know, we
usually hang around. The
same like in America, but over there you have weekends, we have
weekends really relax, from
like Friday night after work. And because you don’t have school on
the day time, and you work
usually, usually you work seven or six days a week, you work the
evening until midnight, and
then you go home then go to school. But like on the weekend you
don’t have to work, and no
school, so usually the Friday night and Saturday night is the good
day, and me and friends go out
together and have, go to the bar, go to music, or you know, go to
drink and all the stuff like that.
KL: What kind of music played at the bars during that time?
TAL: Usually at that time, you know, the music is like rock and
roll in America, that’s the old
time. And then some people like the Vietnamese music and some
people like, you know,
VAOHP0048 4
American music, but I like a lot of American music at that time
because that time was rock and
roll like and the soft music like from America.
KL: Is that when you learned to play the Beach Boys songs?
TAL: That time because I play the guitar because, you know, when
you have free time in
Vietnam, you got, you know, not much stuff to play so you have to
play the guitar with the
friends, and I learn to play a lot from Beach Boys, from America,
and Santana at that time, you
know, there is a lot of music from Santana at that time, so I learn
how to play the guitar and
sometime I play in a band at the weeknights at the nightclub so you
got some paid extra at that
time. So everything becomes money in Vietnam, you know, so that’s
how I become good at
guitar, so I play at the bar, at the nightclub.
KL: So when the war started did it affect how your relationship
with your friends when you used
to go out?
TAL: Yeah, when, you know, the war had been a long, long time in
Vietnam, but when you are
17 you have to get into the army, everybody had to join in the army
at that time, and you know
most of the friends, my friends go to different, I go to the air
force and friend of mine go to, you
know, the tanker, and some of them go to the, you know, gun ship,
and you know everybody go
around and we don’t have a lot of the communication together, and
once a while we, you know,
we see each other at the Saigon because that’s the place that
everybody has their day off from the
army. You know, and then you join together in Saigon and hang out
together, go to night club,
dancing, you know, that’s all.
KL: How about you and your dad, since you guys are both in the
army, how often were you guys
able to see each other?
VAOHP0048 5
TAL: When I young, I go to school, I go to work regularly, I don’t
see dad much, and the time
we join the army, and my dad station in Saigon, Tân Sn Nht, and I
stationed in Bình Hòa, so
actually we don’t see each other much any, and then when I move to
another station in Cn Th,
so you know, actually I didn’t see him until almost, you know, a
year, and until the Vietnam lost,
and I go my way, and he go his way. So actually nobody see each
other after 20 years later, I see,
you know, I fly back to the country to see my dad.
KL: Where did you live during the war? Was there set cities you
stayed in? Or was it always on
the move?
TAL: In the war I have, you know, you go with your station, so like
today, like when I just, when
I get in, I base in Tân Sn Nht with my dad for a couple months, and
then after that they
transfer me to Bình Hòa. I stay there for a while, couple months,
and then they transfer me to
another station in Cn Th, and so I stay in there for a while until,
I believe I stay in Cn Th, in
my last station, I stay there until the war end.
KL: What was your main occupation during the war? What was your job
for the most part?
TAL: In the most part, in so I just in the war I the newbie for
officer, the new office in the army,
so I train for fly the helicopter, I waiting to go to the training
in America, but at that time the war
was so very strong and nobody go at that time and we have to fly
whatever we have left and then
we have to use gunship in the US1 helicopter. And that time, and
that’s why I base in Cn Th at
that time for a while to support like the army, and usually most of
the air force and you stay and
you support at night time or whatever the daytime or nighttime when
they call support from
army. In the war, yeah in the war, right on the ground when they
call, you have to fly out there
and support them usually you shoot when you come up you clear the
area so the army can come
in, and then you drop the army in and you take off.
VAOHP0048 6
KL: What do you remember most about the war time?
TAL: I don’t think any good for remember of the war time because I
been, when we go back to
the station we, you know, sometimes we fly at night, we drop the
light on the land, we go to pick
up the people got the injury when they fighting, we pick up the
people with the injury in fighting
and sometimes because the helicopter was very limited, sometime we
have to carry a lot of
people, the helicopter full of blood and every day we see people
die, some friends of us, some
friends of mine, you know, we are the same company, and sometime we
go and never come
back. And some other people, someone lucky, its okay, someone not,
and when they took off,
that’s it, that’s the last flight, and they don’t coming back, and
we have to carry a lot of body
when they die, bring them back to the, you know, hospital. Some
people, you know, lucky they
still alive and we take them to the hospital and some people don’t,
or sometime we not make it
there, so it’s very hard. I don’t think the, there’s a lot of
memories in that, but most of them is a
sad story and you don’t want to, you know, hear about it, but
people don’t in the war don’t
understand what is it at nighttime, and sometime you sleep, you
can’t sleep because of the bomb
go off and the rockets drop. And we listen in the radio and they
need, you know, support, we
have to go. And sometimes we don’t have enough helicopter to go up
to support, so we have to
order them from a different city, so because we, you know, it’s
only limited area we can support.
And most every day like that, day go by and people injury, missing
people, injury, people cry,
people die, house burn, everything you can name it.
KL: Did it feel like time was going by slower or faster because all
of that was happening?
TAL: Time kind of just like you know regular every day, you know,
it’s like regular every day
and most the time we don’t have the home, we just stay in the base,
you know. Most of us we
don’t, we stay in the base, in the day time, you know, we just
divide like we work, you stay in
VAOHP0048 7
the station like ten hours or twelve hours, and we sleep whatever
we do someone always have the
people stay awake in case any people call in to support and you
have to fly right away. And you
know, if you have a family, it’s okay, you can go home, if you
don’t have time to do it, not in
duty, but I don’t have any family, so I just stay in the station
and then I just, you know, when the
time off I just go out in the city, you know, around and coffee.
Sometime, you know, I get a
couple beers, and then go back to the station and do the job again,
and the day go by like every
days the same, nothing different. First couple, first month was
kind of very hard for people in,
you see a lot of sorrow stories, but after that, its war, you
can’t, you have to expect it.
KL: When you guys were low on helicopters or when there were too
many soldiers that were
injured, did anyone you know, or were you, held as or captured by
the enemy during the war?
TAL: The end of war I have captured by enemy, so I have to, I was
in the station, and they take
over the station, so I was there, so actually they don’t do
anything with me, I just transfer
whatever we had left, transfer to the new government, and then I do
whatever they tell me to do,
and then for a couple months and couple, like a year later, and
they just let me go. You know,
I’m not a prisoner of the war anymore, and then, you know, when I
go back to my hometown and
then they put you in training camp again for, you know, training
camp again to do the, you know,
to teach you what’s good, what’s bad, why you’re fighting at that
time. But most of the time, we
just, you know, laughing, that’s all.
KL: That’s the re-education camp right?
TAL: Yes that’s the re-education camp, it’s just a camp, but
nothing to education in there so they
put you in there so you go do a lot of stuff for yourself. They
have people to teach you some of
why we do that, and why, you know, they win or something like that,
but most of the time that in
VAOHP0048 8
my mind I just do whatever they say and then at nighttime I just
go, try to get to sleep, because if
you don’t do that you will keep thinking and you will get stress
real bad.
KL: What happened to the people who didn’t follow the orders?
TAL: No, everybody followed the order, but a lot of people just try
to be, you know, feel bad
because they think, you know, most people like they are like a
lieutenant or captain or higher,
they think they feel bad so they get stressed and they get sick,
and you know, when you get sick
in the re-education camp, you don’t have any medication. You don’t
have medication that’s bad,
and also the food is not enough for you, so you got, you know, the
best way I always tell a lot of
people there, get it out of your ear. Just shake your head and
just, you know, shake your head and
whatever they say just you are that’s it. Then night time try to
get into sleep, because the bed is
not comfortable, it’s not a mattress, no mattress, so you have to
sleep good, and next day you go
to work whatever they tell you. The day just goes by until I get
out of camp; you know, run away
from the country and go to America.
KL: What kind of work did they have you do?
TAL: Most the time you have to, when they first beginning, when I
got captured by the
communist, I have to teach them what I do before, and how the
helicopter fly, how to shoot the
gun, how you refuel the fuel, and how you fix it when they have a
problem, and then after they
know everything for after a year, now in a year they know
everything about, so they just say I’m
a good people, after they re-education me and release me to the
hometown, and I go home, go to
the hometown and they put me in the education camp again, and they
just ask you to do like the
farming stuff, so a couple years again and you just do whatever
they say, but I don’t know. Let’s
see, the thing they tell you to do is good or bad, but you just do
it, and do the farming for a
couple years, and until everything kind of slow down, and the
communist feel better and they
VAOHP0048 9
learn more stuff, and they let us go home. And we run away from the
country and we go to
America.
KL: During the time you were in the reeducation camp or before or
after, did you or any of your
family members get injured or have/form any disabilities?
TAL: No, when I was in the refugee camp, because that’s a war time.
Injury or disability does
not count, no matter what you do, you have to try to work, even if
you sick or cannot walk, you
still have to walk. And you cannot say, oh I’m so sick today, and
you can’t do anything, you
know, that’s the war time. After the war end, a lot of things can
be happen because there was no
food, they have no clothes, you use whatever the clothes you can
find, you know, it was very bad
time so you don’t, they’re just people surviving. You cannot say oh
I’m sick, I cannot work
today, there’s not the word called sickness at that time or
disability at that time, you just do it,
you work, you survive, if your body cannot handle it, you get sick
more and you die at the war
time and in Vietnam.
KL: What were the last days of the war like?
TAL: That’s a very crazy day and I don’t know how people feel, but
that time, you know, I got
captured in the station so, you know, I kind of feel weird, you
think you’re already maybe kill
you or something like that, but you know, I think everybody mind’s
like that, and then after that,
you know couple days, you see they don’t kill us at that time you
know, that’s normal like every
day, but the day the war end, it was a crazy day. You cannot
believe it. The whole country
collapse and people just dropped the gun, no government, no
everything, no police, only the
other side, the communist side, with the rifle and with the tank
all over the city. And after that
day, you know, after the day the war ends, everything seem like
dark for; I guess for about
almost a year, the place was dark because there was nobody fix
anything, there was nobody.
VAOHP0048 10
Actually the communist had to do a lot of work because some people
take in charge a lot of
stations, like electric, water, and communications. Some people
already go away and nobody
take care of it, and the country kind of nothing. No gas, no food,
no market for a while, and after
that everything become to normal.
KL: So what happened to the family, or your friends and family when
there was no food? Did
you guys live on rations?
TAL: No, you have to, you know, you have to survive, you go to like
the countryside and try to
buy some food there or you try to, you know, because most the
farmers, some of them go away,
and the house is empty, so the farm is empty, so you can get some
rice and some, you know,
some potato, sweet potato, and some the crop left over and you use
it until the communist take
everything, and then you have to work for communist to make some
money. And then after that
everything goes back to normal, not the regular normal like before,
but like normal people sell
some stuff, and people have food for sale, but the price was
totally different, some of them was
very high and some of them were normal, because the money had been
changed after the war
over. The communist don’t want to use the South, the money, after
the war they didn’t want to
use the South people’s money, so they change the money, so most the
people became poor again,
so they only limit how much money you can change, other than that,
any other money you had to
throw them away.
KL: So how did you earn money when it was hard times?
TAL: You have to go, you know actually, with me I have to in the
camp, I guess people have to
work for low money, but I in the education camp and we didn’t have
any money and they just
provide us the food, not a lot of food, we have to grow the food,
we have to do the farming, and
in the education camp, that’s how we got the food to eat together,
but some people have the
VAOHP0048 11
money, the family have the money, they came over to the camp to
take care of them, but I don’t
have any family, so you know, people have been, my dad getting old
so I didn’t want him going
over there to see me. So I look like I disappear so he don’t even
know me, where I am, so I just
work in the camp and get some money. And get some food, that’s all.
And sometimes I, because
I know a lot of stuff, I can fix a lot of stuff when I served in
the army, I do a lot of stuff for
people around, and after the war, a lot of things broken, like the
jeep cannot run, the machine
cannot work, so I do for them, and they pay me some money. It’s not
a lot, but it’s enough for
you to buy some stuff, some clothes, you know, used clothes not new
clothes, and then some
food to live until the time I get out of the country.
KL: So you were in re-education camp until what year?
TAL: I in the re-education camp until 1975 to 1980.
KL: And what year did you leave Vietnam?
TAL: I left Vietnam in 1981, by the boat people because I go and I
fix the boat and I drive the
boat, so people hire me to take care of the boat, and I drive that
boat came to America.
KL: What was it like leaving Vietnam? And how did it make you
feel?
TAL: At that day, I left Saigon about 4 pm, and me and another
friend we drive the boat to the
center of the river, you know the middle of nowhere, and we pick up
some water and we buy
some fuel, and some food put in the boat, and at midnight, I pick
up 48, total about 46 people
with two of us it was 48 people total. 48 people total in the boat,
including the children and some
other people too. In our boat they have the two people they called
the officer of the navy, at that
time I think they can help me because I’m not in the navy I was in
the air force, one officer in the
navy, one’s a doctor in navy, but actually I don’t think they were
navy, the real navy, because
VAOHP0048 12
when the boat get out to the ocean they had the sea sick very bad,
and they cannot stand up until
we docked, until the boat docked in the Indonesia.
KL: Did you know all the people on the boat?
TAL: Yeah, I know everybody in the boat, I had to, I believe we had
only two people can control
the boat, so that me and another guy, and we have to take care
totally, 46 people, and women,
men, and children. And you know, so I have to, actually, in three
days out of the country, I have
to stay awake because I have to pump the water out of the boat,
that’s a very dirty job because
people pee, poop, and throw up in the boat, and the water went up
into the engine compartment
and that’s a lot of water in there so I had to pump the water out
at night time to make the boat
stay afloat. A lot of people got sick, and they don’t even know
what they do. And some people I
have to hold them when they use the restroom because they could not
sit any way, and then I
have to give them food to eat, the water to drink because they
don’t know, other than that they
would have been died in three days. And we have to be against the
pirates too because at night
time outside in the ocean there’s a lot of pirates out there, and
we only carry a couple guns with
me, I only carry a couple guns with me, that’s all I have. So until
we arrived into, I believe it is
Natuna island, one of the small islands close to Borneo, so I
landed, so I docked the boat in there
and that time we meet the US Army, US Navy, and then they transfer
us to, we stayed in Natuna
for two week, two or three week, I can’t remember. At that time I
was working too, I have to do
translator with Indonesia people, and I got the food from people to
eat, so kind of very, you
know, cool trip. I can’t believe I handle the trip very nice, and
you know, and good.
KL: Did anyone die on the ship?
TAL: Nobody died on the ship, that’s a good thing, nobody died on
the ship.
KL: Did you bring anything with you?
VAOHP0048 13
TAL: I don’t have anything. I don’t bring anything with me but the
gun and bullet.
KL: Did any family members come along other than you?
TAL: No I don’t have any family members go with me. And that time I
go with my girlfriend
and her family because the boat owned by my girlfriend’s family and
some other people I don’t
like them, but I have to take care of them because all of them sick
so some people don’t like me
either, but that’s the way I have to control it. Because that time
right outside the ocean, and I take
care the boat, same like I’m a captain, so they have to obey my
rules, so I treat everybody the
same, and nobody’s different.
KL: When you left Vietnam, did you feel bad about leaving your dad
there?
TAL: Yeah. When I left the country, I feel bad to leave my dad and
brother, but you know, I
think that’s survival. You have to do whatever you have to do
because it’s a very hard time in the
country, and the communist don’t let me do anything, and I have to
do the hard work, not even, I
work for shipyard, I go back to the shipyard to find a job, but you
know, they don’t let you do
good work unless you are a communist family. That’s why the reason
I had to leave the country.
KL: Did you dad know when you left? Or because you guys didn’t
contact each other during
your re-education camp, did you just leave and he didn’t
know?
TAL: No, he know the time I left, but he don’t know what day I left
Vietnam, he know I would
be leave the country, but he don’t know what day I would be leave
Vietnam until when I arrive
in Natuna, I have, I meet one the people, a friend, and he send the
paper, the telegram to Vietnam
say I arrived to Natuna island safe, and that time my dad say,
after a while he contact me when I
was in the refugee camp, at that time he say he feel good because I
left safely. Because most the
people left Vietnam, they can’t make it, and also they have a lot
of pirates, and when we left, we
have one the boat, I believe it was a pirate because they want to
take over our boat, but I shoot
VAOHP0048 14
them so they go away, and nobody come back, and no pirate come back
at that time anymore.
They shoot at us, then I shoot at them, I guess they lost, so they
just go away.
KL: What was it like leaving your son behind?
TAL: You know, kind of bad, you know, you have a lot of, you cannot
put the things right in
your head. You have to do whatever you have to do, and everything
else you do it later because
you have to, like that time, because I serve the army, at that
time, now Vietnam was kind of open
a little bit, but before when you serve in the army before, you are
a United State military, you
cannot get anything good. It’s not a good job, but decent job in
Vietnam because most the decent
job you have to, for the people with the family with the communist.
I guess every country is the
same, because the people, when they dream, they can have
everything, when the people lose they
don’t have nothing left.
KL: So did you leave your son behind with his mom because they
wanted to stay, or because you
couldn’t bring them with you?
TAL: No, I cannot bring them with me, because at that time he was
very young and also when
you left, when I left the country, you don’t think you can make it
or not, same like you go into
the war. Because I go because people trust me to protect the boat,
you know to protect the boat,
to fix the boat, and to protect the people in the boat. Look like
you are a, you know, the people
have the money and they have a boat and they want to hire a
security, like security guard to
protect themselves in the boat, that’s why I go I don’t have to
pay. Most the people who left the
country you have to pay a lot of money, I don’t have to pay
anything because I have a gun, the
power, military training, so I know what I can do outside the
country when I hit into danger or
the boat get hijack. That’s why most the boat left Vietnam don’t
have people like me, so that’s
VAOHP0048 15
why they have hijack by Thailand, the hijack from the Thailand. But
my boat, my girlfriend’s
father hired me to do that. That’s why I have to protect everybody
out there, you know.
KL: So when you landed in a refugee camp, did you stay at the
refugee camp for long or did they
transfer you somewhere else?
TAL: When I go to the refugee camp, it’s called the Galang Island,
and in, I think it’s in
Indonesia it’s a Galang in Indonesia, and I stay there, and that
time I work with the Indonesia
people. So I make some money at the refugee camp and I stay in the
refugee camp about a year
before, because you have to go to the education before you came to
America so you know what
America looks like, or something like that, but we already, because
that’s the education from
America. They think most Vietnam people don’t know anything about
America, but when I serve
in the army, we know most everything in America, what they have and
what they do. But when a
lot of people out of country for refugee, most the people don’t
have an education that’s why they
called it education amp, so you can educate people how to speak
English and everything.
KL: Is that where you learned to speak English?
TAL: No. I didn’t go to speak, or go to learn English in here or
either in refugee camp. I do go to
school there but I didn’t learn anything, most the time I learn
when I serve in the army because
when you go to the army you have to know how to speak English when
you deal with American
people and know how to speak English, and know the operator system,
and everything they use
English language, so you have to know everything.
KL: Did they teach you how to write English or read English, or
only just speak it?
TAL: No, yeah you have to know how to write and read English
because everything in training
in the helicopter or anything like, some other stuff, everything by
English not use Vietnam
language, so you know, so actually when I serve in the Air Force
everything in English I had to
VAOHP0048 16
learn by myself. So first beginning it kind of very hard, but after
a while you know and you keep
learning by yourself, and the main thing I learn that’s a
dictionary. That’s the best book to learn
English.
KL: How did you get to come to the United States? Was it like
family sponsorship, refugee
status, or by taking classes?
TAL: I went to America because of refugee status because I service
in the army and I don’t have
any people here, so they put me in the, you know, they called it
the refugee. I stay in the Galang
island, I believe over a year, and then I came in America, I
believe 1982. Somehow in that area, I
can’t remember much, but I came here and when I was in refugee camp
I have, I adopt one the
kid, the same boat as me but he don’t have any relative in the
boat, and he do have a relative but
relative doesn’t want him, so he don’t have any people go with
because he’s a minor, at the camp
nobody take care of him, and he in my boat, and I alone so I let
him stay with me and I take care
of him until he came to the United States with me. Because when he
came to the United States
and someone have been sponsored for him, I believe his uncle or
somehow in his family, so
when they came here, and some other reason they sponsor him and he
don’t stay with me
anymore after almost two years in the refugee camps. He stay with
me for two years, almost two
years in the refugee camp.
KL: Did you stay in contact with him when he went to America or did
you guys lose contact
after you left the refugee camp?
TAL: No, I didn’t contact with him after, I believe after 20 years
later, he come to visit me. After
20 years later, 20 years or something like that, and then all of
sudden I know he find his family
and then he contact me, but I don’t think I met him after that
because I know where he live, and
VAOHP0048 17
he married now, but I don’t know he remember I take care him or
not, I hear some people say he
says he remembers me. That’s okay, I don’t ask any return.
KL: When you were at the camp you said you were able to contact
your dad, did you contact any
other family members like the son or your brother?
TAL: No because I just contact with my dad because my dad would be
transfer whatever I say,
or what I say with any people because it was very limited when you
in the refugee camp, very
limited on the letter because it take very long time to go there
and sometime the letter never
arrive. So you know, we just try to use the telegraph, so kind of
short letter, by the electric, so
you know it’s there, but other than that I do take a picture to
send to my dad, but I don’t know if
he receive it or not to my son, but I don’t know. But when you in
the camp, you have no control
and the paper work send to Vietnam, you don’t know if they came or
not, so we just use
telegraph, because telegraph you know right away they send the
letter to your family.
KL: Did you keep any copies of those letters?
TAL: I do keep it for a while, but then I don’t know where I put it
after a while, after 10 years, I
think after 10 or 15 years in America, I don’t know where I put it.
But I still have a lot of stuff I
still keep it until that time, but after that time I don’t know
where the picture gone, so kind of in
America there is a lot of stress so you lose a lot of memory, so I
don’t remember where I put it.
KL: When you came to America, what was the first place you went
to?
TAL: When the first time I came to America, I went to Louisiana
with my sponsor. I believe I
stay there for maybe a week, I believe so. And I have only, I don’t
know, I think it’s a refugee
agent; they gave me $200 or $220. And then I buy my airfare ticket
from New Orleans to Los
Angeles, because I have a brother who lived in Los Angeles. I came
to Los Angeles at midnight
and nobody pick me up at the airport and I don’t know how to get
into his house, and I go
VAOHP0048 18
outside and looking for transportation. They said they have a bus
but in the morning, they don’t
have it right now because it is too late, and I sit outside of LAX.
I remember one the black guys
ride the taxi, he said where you going, I told him I’m going to
Duarte, and I don’t even know
where Duarte is, that’s where my brother live with my Aunt in
Duarte. And he told me it’s
expensive man, because it’s too far. And I tell him I only have $20
in my pocket, but of course I
believe I have some more than that, $25 or $26 or something like
that, but I tell him I have to
keep a couple dollars to living, and I can pay you only $20. He
told me he cannot take me there
for $20. I sit there for a while on the bench outside the LAX, and
then I saw him, I saw the same
taxi come by an hour later, and he told me come in man and give me
$20, and I give him $20,
and I saw a couple customers in the taxi, and he drive, I remember
now, but that time I don’t
remember where he go. So he drive, he drop two of those people in
the Hilton, one of the hotel,
Hilton hotel in Pasadena, I know after that, but that time I don’t
even know what is it. And after
that I knew it was the Hilton in Pasadena, and after dropping the
two customers and he drop me
to my brother’s house at the Buena Vista in Duarte. So I go and see
my brother.
KL: What was your first impression of America or California and New
Orleans?
TAL: Actually, when I came to America, you know, kind of, a lot of
high tech, a lot better than
Vietnam, the house is bigger, we don’t have like that in Vietnam.
The thing I learn, a lot of
people in America kind of different. When I first came here before
I was in Vietnam, I think
America is like beautiful, nice, but when I came here, I see a lot
of poor area and, you know,
before when I was in Vietnam, I didn’t think America had like poor
people or something like
that. When I came to America I see a lot of them and, you know,
people cheating a lot. So it’s
nothing to impress when I came, but after that I go find a job and,
you know, I don’t think
anything is impress, but I see a lot of people nice and honest. But
other than that, there’s a lot of
VAOHP0048 19
bad people, a lot of cheating, you know, so they make it kind of
seem like at that time I learn
every country is the same, there’s nothing nicer than other
country. Of course they have some
high tech is better, living is better, the food is better, but you
know, when you have a job you can
get most everything like that.
KL: When you went on the airplane and flew from New Orleans to
California? Or when you
landed in New Orleans or California, did people treat you
differently because you were
Vietnamese?
TAL: When I go from Singapore to America, I go with a lot of
refugees at that time, and yeah, I
believe they treat you different, but actually they treat me better
because I speak English and you
know, I’m kind of like translator for people there, so whatever
they need, they tell me and I tell
the people work for aircraft, tell them whatever they need. And I
tell them, and it was kind of
okay, because a lot of people don’t understand what they say.
Sometimes they have seatbelt and I
have to translate it to the Vietnamese and tell them to seatbelt
and everything like that. And when
I came to New Orleans, and then from New Orleans I fly to LAX, they
don’t treat any people
different, everybody’s the same. So I go in there, just myself, and
you sit, you know, people
don’t mind what you do, that’s a good thing about America, you
know, people do whatever you
do in your own business, it’s not other’s business. Some people say
American is discrimination,
when I was in high school they said a lot of discrimination, but
with me, I don’t see that, I see
every country they treat me the same, but actually I think America
is just open more than any
other country.
KL: How did you settle down here, or earn money to live here? Or
did your brother help you out
at first?
VAOHP0048 20
TAL: When I first came here, that night, no, no, the next day, I
have to go to K-mart, I
remember, I walk to K-mart I buy a couple jeans, a couple shirts,
so I can find a job. So after that
at night time, I go to Winchell’s Donuts, I remember, Winchell’s
Donuts, I bought a cup of
coffee. Because in Vietnam usually we drink coffee at night, we go
out at night drinking coffee,
and sit down, you know like a coffee shop or something like that,
but in America they don’t have
that. At that time they didn’t have a Starbucks at that time, they
only have Winchell Donut, I go
to Winchell Donut and I got a cup of coffee and talk to a couple of
people, and one of the guy he
work at Winchell Donut ask me, “you want a job?”, I say what job,
he say bakery, I say I don’t
know how to bake. He said just come in, you want the job, fill out
the form, come in tomorrow, I
teach you how to do the bakery, and at that time I just fill out
the application and I come next day
and I have a job in the bakery for a while. And then when I do the
bakery, and I have a little bit
of money I buy a car and got a driver license, I bought the car, I
drive to the gas station, I fill up
the gas, and one of the guy ask me, “hey, you want a job?”, I say
what job, he said attendant, you
know, you take care the gas station for me, and I say okay. At that
time, I live in Duarte, kind of
small town in America, and I go to work at the station so night
time I work at Winchell Donut,
and day time I work at the gas station, and in the evening I sleep
a little bit, and then I go to
Winchell Donut to work again. I work a couple jobs for a while, I
believe it’s more, maybe about
a year, and then when I live in the apartment, they have one the
neighbors he worked for car
dealer, Ford Motor company car dealer, and he ask me “do you want
to get a job?”, and I said
yeah. Because he saw I work at the gas station, you know, I do
most, I just take care of mini
market, take care of tow truck, I take care, you know ,do a lot of
stuff in the gas station, and he
ask me you want a job and I said yeah, I know how to do it, but I’m
not good out of it, he said
VAOHP0048 21
don’t worry I take you in, and he take me in and then I work for
Ford dealer until that time until
2010.
KL: Were you saving up for anything when you were first working at
Winchell Donut?
TAL: Yeah, I save up some money to buy the car, a couple hundred
dollar vehicle.
KL: Was there a reason you needed the car, or did it make it easier
for you?
TAL: It made it easier for you to ride around, when you don’t have
a car, you go anywhere, you
have to ask people to give you a ride, and sometimes people don’t
have a car. You have to buy a
car in America, and then I go buy a car, and then buy the insurance
and I drive around to go to
the market, you know, go further, and I believe after a year, and
then I fix up the car, you know,
that car I just bought was Camaro, I don’t know the year, but
Camaro, Chevy engine, 350 engine,
a very good Camaro. I drive that car from California to Prince
George in Canada, small town all
the way up near Alaska, to visit my girlfriend, and then we
married, after that we married, and
we drive the same car to come back to California.
KL: How did she get to Canada?
TAL: My girlfriend she go with her family, because her family, all
of them live in Canada, she
lived in refugee camp for a while, and they go to Canada before I
go to the United States.
Because they have a family that live over there, and I don’t have
any people so I have to stay in
the camp, wait for refugee pick up, and also because I’m in the
army, so I go with the army rules,
so I came to America because I serve in the army, and that’s
all.
KL: How do you feel about your decision to come to the US?
TAL: I think at that time I don’t think anything, I just want to go
somewhere that is better. I can
find something to do. You know, can do something for my life. Can
build up my job, can have a
house, can have, you know, family. But when I go to America, so
it’s nothing, I like it. I worked.
VAOHP0048 22
I tried to save the money to buy a car, small car, have a family,
and then I buy the new house,
and then the first time we bought, after I marry, we bought a
condominium, and after that we sell
the condominium and we buy the house because we have the kids. So
everything seemed like it
was okay with me because I don’t know, I’m not rich, but I believe
I get, I do the best I can to
support my family and I’m the kind of the people that like to work,
so no matter what, either
time I got sick so bad I still work. I remember the day I came back
from the hospital, and my
daughter, I cannot stand, and because I broke my leg I cannot stand
up, my daughter had to hold
me for me to fix the couple of heaters because the house been
getting cold after a couple of days.
After a week I stay in the hospital, so I’m the people that like to
work.
KL: After you settled down in America did any of your family
members come, or did your son
come to America to stay here?
TAL: No, after I settled down in America and I believe one time, a
couple of times, I ask my
dad, I want to sponsor for him to come here, but he said no. He’d
been in service in the air force
for so long, and he have been training in America, he lived in
America before, and now he want
to spend his life, the rest of his life, in Vietnam. And because I
believe the first beginning when I
left the country, it was the hard time, the people very poor, not
every people, some people still
rich, some people still poor. Every country’s the same. After that,
the communist they open the
door so people can go back to visit, more business booming, and
that’s the reason my dad just
want to stay in the country because he’s getting old and also he
had a stroke so, he know when
you’re in America, you’re sick, you’re by yourself, nobody helps
you. In Vietnam when you’re
sick, the neighbor still maybe, sometime the neighbor come over and
help you, or friend come
over to help you, people share each other when the time they’re
getting old. They’re always have
a lot of place for old people hang around, just sit down, talk,
play games, but if you, that’s what I
VAOHP0048 23
believe my dad did not want to come to stay in America when he get
old, because you will be
lonely at home, every kid, your son may go to work all day, come
home in the evening to see
you for a couple of hours, and that’s it. Maybe go out with each
other once in a while, that’s why
my dad didn’t want to come here, and I do sponsor for my son, but
some reason the people miss,
the US embassy, they told me my son didn’t reply for the paperwork,
so he cannot come here.
And I asked him, you want, I can re-sponsor for you again, but now
it’s harder because now I
become handicap, the income is limited, so that’s why it is very
hard to sponsor for him to come
to America, but he said no, it’s okay, I can still do a lot of
stuff in Vietnam, I can make money,
and I believe he has his mom, and his mom marry again, and they
break up again and have one
son, and the son died too. So she, she stay in Vietnam that’s why
my son wanted to stay with her
and take care of her when she getting old.
KL: Did you ever think about going back to Vietnam and living
there, or did you ever want to go
back and live there?
TAL: That’s a good question. A couple years ago, about 2005, I was
thinking about going back
to Vietnam when I got sick here, but I changed my mind again, and I
may go in and out Vietnam
to see my son, or my grandkids, because I have three grandkids now,
my son has three sons,
three boys, so I have three grandkids. So I may, later I may
sponsor for them to come here to go
to school here, but living here, I don’t know, they want to living
here or live in Vietnam. Because
there’s a lot of people that love to come to America, but my son
doesn’t bother him much,
because I believe he can make money over there, he can have a good
job there, so of course
America you have more chance to make the money. But a lot of people
come here don’t even
have a job, so that’s why the reason he stay there. I don’t know if
I want to go back to Vietnam
to live there when I get old, or if I want to stay in America, I
have kids in America, so I believe
VAOHP0048 24
my decision is just some days I stay in America, sometimes I stay
in Vietnam to stay with my
son for a couple of months, and my daughters in America for a
couple months. I think that’s my
final decision.
KL: Did you want to, when you were thinking about going to Vietnam,
was it because you
missed your family that was there or was it just; you wanted to
feel more at home?
TAL: I don’t know. Some people just say I miss the country, but
after 20 years, you have the
struggle with, another word I use is survival. You have to go to a
lot of places to survive, to
make life a little bit better, and after 20 years, more than 20
years, and I don’t think I remember
Vietnam much, I put everything behind in the past. My life is a
little bit better, because if you
keep thinking you’ll have more stress because the way I think
everything from yesterday you
have to let them go, and move on with the new, and try to make your
life a little better.
KL: When you were in America, did you ever think back to the war,
or the days you were a
soldier?
TAL: Yeah, that’s always in your memory. Sometimes, the worst thing
is that every day when
you sit down, sometimes, at night time, especially when I serve in
the army at night time. In the
evening, sometime you stay in the camp right in the middle of
nowhere and you look at the sky
in the evening, when they sky start turning dark and I believe
everywhere is the same, and it
brings back a lot of memories, and that’s not a good memory, but
you remember a lot of bad
stories. If you can make a movie, that’s a hell of a movie, the
people have to go through. It’s not
like an hour movie, two hour movie, but it’s a long, long way. You
can see how you survive,
how you eat when you live in the army, of course everybody get
paid, but sometime you don’t
even have food to eat, sometime you have to eat, they call the
canned food for a couple days, and
drinking the dirty water, when you don’t have water. So just a
survivor and the time I left, when
VAOHP0048 25
the time you survive in the war, and the time you survive when you
service the war, and the time
I survive when I left the country to go to America, and the time I
stay in America to make my
life a little bit change, so you don’t have to go through the
depression it’s very hard, because it’s
long and very hard.
KL: Do you ever try to just push back your memories of the Vietnam
War behind, or do you just,
if they come back and you remember them, it’s okay?
TAL: I always remember, you cannot put that thing behind because
there’s a lot of friend, a lot
of people you go through, a lot of pictures you see it, of the war.
So kind of you cannot forget it,
and sometimes you sleep and you can see the memories back, for more
than 30 years now. I
don’t think anybody ever forgets it completely. Because you can see
it, sometime you wake up
after the bomb drop one place, or after the rocket drop one place,
you can see the body parts over
the place, children, women, civilian people, all kind of stuff,
it’s hard to forget it.
KL: Does that ever affect what you do in America?
TAL: They might or might not because I’m not a doctor so I don’t
know that much about that.
But I try the best I can. That’s why I learn things, when you have
a problem, just close the door
and move onto the next step, so you can feel your life’s a little
bit better because the memories
are always there, they don’t go away.
KL: Are there any activities you do in America that you choose to
do because you sort of
remember what you used to do in Vietnam or because you want to keep
the things you used to do
in Vietnam and do them here as well?
TAL: Actually, in Vietnam and here, it’s totally different jobs. I
work in Vietnam, some like I
do, it’s just different job, it’s hard, it’s not that different,
but kind of different place and different
ways to make a living. In Vietnam, when I was young, I born in the
war, I born in the time they
VAOHP0048 26
have a war in Vietnam, so the life was already hard, so the people
have to learn how to survive,
and then when I grow up in Vietnam, you have to do everything you
can to survive, to make life
better. Like you want to have a Honda motorcycle or you want to
have nice clothes, you have to
work harder, same like in America, but in America, you have more
chance to get a different job,
better job. But in Vietnam, you have to be work smart, and then I
believe every country is the
same way. You have to work smarter a little bit to make your life a
little bit better.
KL: How about the things you do on the side, just for fun?
TAL: You know when the time I was in America, I don’t do much of
fun stuff. Sometime, before
sometime I ride the bicycle, I go out with friends, go do things
with friends, and sometimes we
go out fishing with the friends, and usually go shooting, and make
some ammunition, you know,
you just make you, just put your mind in a different kind of world
so you feel better, a little bit.
And then, also, when you go shooting, so you kind of remember the
time you’re in war, in
Vietnam, serving in the army. And I like to, sometime I like to
collect the old guns at the time I
was in service in Vietnam. To have the time to go back a little
bit, and to the time to relax your
mind, if you’re working, keep working all the time, it kind of
burns out, but I don’t stay too long
with the clear out, like other people use to. Like they have to go
out to fishing, they have to go
out to play golf, I do when I have time only.
KL: What kind of guns do you have from, that resemble, or like the
ones you used to use in
Vietnam?
TAL: Like the M1 Garand, that’s what we used in Vietnam, and you
know that’s all I have. They
have some other gun in Vietnam too, but kind of expensive and you
know I don’t want to get too
much. I just get one, that’s good enough to remember the time I was
in service. That gun I use it
in 1972.
VAOHP0048 27
KL: Is that one of the first guns you were trained with when you
were training to fight in the
war?
TAL: I can’t remember, but I think that’s the first gun because
most people, even when I’m in
America, most people training for the army, you have to train
through the M1 Garand. Because
that’s one of the older rifles in war, I believe from World War I
and World War II. World War II
until the Korean War, Vietnam War, and that’s the basic training,
everybody have to go through
that gun. But after that you can use carbon, carbine M1, and AR-15,
some other stuff like that,
but you know. And also, I don’t want to have a lot of other guns,
because bullets are kind of
expensive too, so I have to make my own bullet, usually when I
service in the army you don’t
care about the bullets because you got that for free. But now
you’re a civilian and you want to go
shoot, it cost you money for shooting. So I have to considering
what the rifle I can get, and what
kind of bullets you can make. If you cannot make it, might as well
don’t get the rifle because it
cost money.
KL: Do you do these things sort of, so as you grow older you never
forget the experiences you
had in Vietnam or is it something you feel that you’d like to
remember now about Vietnam?
TAL: No, I like to have the old guns, so I can remember what is
beautiful about America make at
that time. When I service in the army, I know a lot about the guns,
what is the soviet have, what
is the China have, what America has, what the beauty of, and what
the capable of. So I like to
have some of them, but longer I can make, I can reload the
ammunition, kind of to cut the cost of
the shooting. Because every time you go shooting it cost a lot, so
you want to be cut the cost
down. Also it kind of brings you back to the memory, so you still
know when you were just 20,
and you don’t want to get old and you know, getting loss of memory.
That’s why I try to keep up
with the activities I used to do when I was young.
VAOHP0048 28
KL: When you are doing things like this, or when you first came to
America, did you experience
a lot of racism or any discrimination?
TAL: When I came to America, they have a lot of race, and
discrimination, but you always can
work around it. You don’t put in, I know a lot of people put in
their mind, that’s why you don’t.
Like I go to work, one of the dealership, all of them white, it was
only me that was Asian, I don’t
have any problems with that, you have to work around. You got to
remember this is America,
some people like that, some people like their own way, so you have
to use your mind to work a
way. If you say its America’s discrimination, I don’t think it’s
bad like China. I think the word
discrimination is all around the world. So a lot of people in this
country, when I came here, I see
it, but people say, does it bother you? I say no, it doesn’t bother
me, even when I go to work,
some people they call me chino, that means the Mexicans they call
me Chinese people, they call
them chino I believe so. But with me, some people get into their
heart and they get mad, but I
don’t because I think that’s just a joke. Why people don’t let them
go? Next day, everybody treat
me the same, everybody joke with me, and it depends how you take
it, but I see, I take it very
well. I don’t have any problem with that.
KL: Do you identify yourself as an American, a Vietnamese American,
or just Vietnamese when
you’re in America?
TAL: When I come to America, I believe, I know some people told me,
because like before,
people usually say you never become American if you’re not white.
That’s true, or not true,
depends how you take it. But I believe I am Asian American, not
Vietnamese anymore because
when the time I left the country, I try to put everything behind
and the first paper work I got in
America, in that paperwork, under that document they put the state,
they say stateless. That
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means no country. Now I understand why it is no country because I
am people not belong to
Vietnam anymore.
KL: How did that make you feel when you saw the word
“stateless”?
TAL: You know, I feel that’s true because when you left the country
and you don’t have a
country to live. So you have to go some other country with refugee,
and I know a lot of people
just go back and say I am Vietnam, of course you’re born in there,
you can’t erase all the
memories there, but you got to remember when you become American
citizenship, you have to
protect America. That’s what the country is all about, and because
I believe there’s no place
better than America. Of course everywhere they have a problem,
nothing’s perfect, but you have
to live with it.
TAL: Yes.
KL: Do you remember what it was like when you were going through
the process of becoming a
citizen?
TAL: I think that’s normal process, there’s nothing hard. Of course
when you become a citizen
you have to know some of the laws in the country, and also you have
to remember laws no
excuse for no one. You have to understand that because before you
come to citizenship in one
country, but America they open their arms and they take you in with
no reason, but you know, so
I think that’s, when I become, my life become US citizen, we feel a
little bit better than any other
country. Because I believe other countries don’t do that for you
like in America.
KL: So when you became a citizen you felt more American?
TAL: Yeah.
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KL: Did that make you feel more comfortable just being here, or did
it make you feel more
comfortable when you were out with others who weren’t Asian?
TAL: You know what, I feel safer, I don’t know how, like people
feel when you travel out of the
United States, and when you come back to the United States, when
you land in the United States,
when the aircraft lands in LAX, or wherever. Like you go to Canada,
and you go back to the
United States, you feel different, you feel you’re home, not like,
like I go to Vietnam, I don’t feel
like I’m home like when I came back to the United States. When I’m
back to the United States, I
feel like I’m home, I feel better.
KL: So when you visit Vietnam, is it uncomfortable or do you feel
like an outsider?
TAL: Yes, when I visit to Vietnam I feel uncomfortable, and like an
outsider. I don’t know what
the reason, but it’s how in my mind, that’s how they work like
that. And then even I travel there
only a couple weeks, and when I’m back in LAX I feel better.
Especially when you see the
customs, and they tell you ‘welcome home’, you feel a little
better, you feel much, much better,
and the feeling you cannot explain it. I don’t know how people feel
because I know a lot of
people I feel good when I go to Vietnam, but I don’t feel good,
even my wife, she don’t feel
good that way. But when we step in the soil, in the land of
America, we feel totally different, we
feel happy more. We feel like we are home. Real home.
KL: Is there a reason why you feel like this is your real home, is
it because you’ve settled down,
you have a house here, and you’ve worked so hard to be here?
TAL: Yeah, I don’t know, I guess so, because maybe we have a house
here, we’ve lived here so
long. And now this land is our home, so it’s the only thing you can
remember now is your home
is America, nowhere else. But with other people, I don’t know, I
think other people still think
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where they’re born is their home, but I see, it’s hard to explain
the feeling, I feel this is my land
and this is my home.
KL: Are there any traditions or customs you kept from Vietnam
though, even though you feel
like America is your home?
TAL: Some of them we still keep some of the traditions, like you
remember the dead people. I
believe Americans do have that too, but I don’t know how the
culture in America, long, long
before, but that’s how in Vietnam long, long before. But even now
in Vietnam they don’t
remember the old people, so I want my kids to remember the old
people, the people that passed
away, the generation. So that’s all I keep from Vietnam, and you
know, some the food I still keep
from Vietnam, but that’s not important I have to have the food,
like a lot of Asians say I have to
eat the Asian food. Nah, with me yes, I can eat everything if I
have, I can, if you ask me if you
like more Asian food or American food, I say I maybe like the
hamburger better because it’s fast
and easy to make, very simple, makes life easy more.
KL: Since you’ve been in America, do you tend to be around the
Vietnamese community more
often, or would you prefer to be around people who consider
themselves American or non-
Asians?
TAL: When I’m in America, I don’t, with me, I don’t around a lot of
Asians, I’m around with
everybody, white, black, Mexican, Indian, Philippine, you know,
everybody’s the same. I’m not
around a lot of Vietnamese community, and I don’t know, maybe
because when I come in I stay
with American. Most the people around me speak English, and
everybody treat everybody the
same, they not see you like Asian, they not see you because you are
white, or because you are
black. So I like that way better than you stay with the Asian
American, one place where every
time you go anywhere you find your food, country food everything
like that. With my family,
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everybody eat everything outside, treat every people the same
because this is our country. You
don’t look at people different like other way.
KL: Of all your memories from when you were a child to now, would
you think more positively
on your memories in Vietnam or do they tend to be not as positive
as the memories you have in
America?
TAL: In America I think you have a lot of memories because I, if I
say, I live in Vietnam only 20
years, maybe 22 years, but I live in America more than 30 years. I
live in Vietnam maybe about
20 years or something like that, but most the time, it’s as a
younger kid, so I don’t remember
much. But when I grow up starting when I was 17 I serve in the army
for a while, until the
country lost, then I came to stay in America, until now. With me, I
believe, America is my
country, I’m not belong to Vietnam anymore.
KL: And you’re okay with that right?
TAL: Yeah, I’m okay with that, I feel better that way because when
you stay in one place for
more than 30 years now, so you know, America’s my land, and my
home, and my country.
KL: Are there any other memories or stories that you’d like to
share?
TAL: There’s a lot of memories, a lot of stories, but you know, you
cannot sit there and talk all
about the memories because that’s very long, because when I start,
I out the house at that time, I
was very young, about 15 years old. And I go to school, I go to
work, because that’s the war
time, and my dad remarried again, and that’s the war time, and I
have to go to school and I have
to work to help my dad a little bit. And then there’s a lot of good
stories, a lot of bad stories, a lot
of stories for survival, especially when you’re just 15, 14 year
old kid, you go outside, you try to
work, and people try to rip you off, and you have to fight with
your job, and you go to school,
and stay at midnight to do your homework. And you have to make sure
you join the army at the
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right time, otherwise you cannot choose when you’re in the service.
So that’s a lot of hard word
when you be a kid, not like in America, the kids have more freedom.
They still enjoy until, some
people, some kids, I see them 25, 30; they still don’t know much
about survival. So when I grow
up in the wartime, I have to learn a lot of things for survival.
You have to save your money, save
your food, how you can survive for a couple of months in case the
town has been war or
bombed, or something like that. So you talk about the story in
Vietnam that’s a long, long story.
And I don’t know how you can finish it. I remember when I was in
refugee camp, one of the
communist officer told me, if you talk about the story of what you
guys doing, it’s a very long,
like the ocean, you never finish.
KL: So do you have anything else about your memories in refugee
camps or stories about the
refugee camps, or your trips from going all the islands in
Indonesia to America that sort of stick
with you, even until today?
TAL: Yeah, when the time, all the refugee camp stick with me until
today. I remember
everything from the day I left the country and the day we arrived
to one the small island, they
called the Natuna Island, how we lived, how we found food there.
It’s very amazing. One of the
people from other country came to another country and survival, and
I don’t even have money in
my pocket, not even a dollar. And I don’t know how I can survive
that, I can even find food for
48 people, 48 people including me in the one island. I go out, I
remember that day, I go out to
talk with local people to get some fish, get some rice, take it to
one of the barrack where we live,
and then we cook with each other, and then move to another one. So
I have to, I always have to
work, I have to find the way how to invent people to help you, to
drive you, to share everything
with you, until today that is amazing. Sometimes I remember, I sit
down and remember how I
can do it, but I did it anyways.
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