SANTA ANA, Calif. – Orange County’s Clerk-Recorder celebrated in a ceremony this past April, his family’s safe escape during the fall of Saigon, at an event at the USS Midway-the very ship which brought them to the U.S. 50 years ago.
At the center of a celebration of Vietnamese refugee resilience, 50 years after the fall of Saigon to Communist forces, was the USS Midway and Admiral Lawrence Chambers who, as Captain, alongside his crew at the end of April in 1975, rescued 3,075 Vietnamese evacuees fleeing their war-torn country. Among them was now Orange County Clerk-Recorder, Hugh Nguyen, his sister, aunts and Grandparents.
“Without that ship, I always tell everybody, I wouldn’t be here because there was no way to escape Vietnam during the fighting,” Nguyen said…